


hostage

by ProfessionalMess



Series: song fics [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Based on a Billie Eilish Song, Bottom Keith (Voltron), Dragon Keith (Voltron), First Kiss, Happy Ending, Human Lance (Voltron), Keith has both sets of genitals, Keith is the last dragon, Keithtober 2019, Klancetober 2019, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Riding, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Top Lance (Voltron), and kosmo, as far as he knows, bc hes a dragon and he can, but it kinda got away from me a little, but not abo technically, but nothing super graphic, keith is a loner, lil spots of angst but mostly fluff and smut, mentions of human/dragon war, until lance, who wants to be friends with a dragon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2020-11-23 19:51:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 52,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessionalMess/pseuds/ProfessionalMess
Summary: He waited for days, and no one came.He waited for weeks, and he never saw another soul.He waited for months, and watched the human cities creep farther and farther away from the base of his mountain, reaching further into the rich, fertile lands and leaving behind the towering peaks he called home.He waited for years, and he knew then for sure that they had no interest in him. The humans weren’t coming for him, and it left him lost, confused, without purpose. If the humans didn’t want to slay him, didn’t want to see him dead on the ground, then... what was he supposed to do now?--or, keith is a dragon that somehow survived a centuries-long war between the humans and the dragons. lance is a human with a little too much curiosity about the stories he's heard.





	1. i wanna be alone—prologue

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to another fic that's much longer than I planned!!! in honor of keithtober and kinktober and general october monsterfucker vibes, i figured now would be a good time to post this dragon keith content. i hope you enjoy :)
> 
> title and chapter titles come from billie eilish's hostage!! give it a listen if you want to it inspired this entire fic

A lot could be said for the dragons of Altea. 

They were beautiful, massive, and elegant, intelligent, observant and wise. They were demonic, terrifying, and evil, heartless, ruthless, and feared. And most recently, they were dead—all except one. 

The battle between the people and the dragons of Altea had been a long one, started one century in the dead of night and ended nearly two centuries later in the broad light of day, when the last beast—or what was thought to be the last—had been slain. The war had lasted so long that the people didn’t even remember why they were fighting, but they had celebrated for days afterward, rejoicing in the defeat of their greatest enemy and the knowledge that never again would their livestock be slaughtered or their houses be pillaged or their children be taken and returned years later a different man. 

They grew complacent in their newly found sense of security which is why they failed to notice the dragon that remained, the beast that hid in the deepest, darkest of caves and cried out for a family that would not be returning to its nest. 

The dragon was young—old enough to be aware of the terrible war that had taken place and the price his kind had paid in it, but young enough to feel the loss like a fresh wound in his side, stinging sharply with every breath he took. And when the dragon finally ventured from the depths of his cave and saw that his darkest fears were true, that his kind no longer filled the sky with their arching, diving forms and the wind no longer carried the song born from the beat of their wings, he cried. He cried, and he vowed to make the humans pay for the acts of cruelty against his kind that were entirely unfounded—committed in a fit born from the drunkenness of power and the haze of bloodlust, never out of necessity or innocence and self-defense. 

Anyone alive two centuries prior would have been able to say with confidence that the war had begun because of the human’s greed. They would have been able to regale stories of the deal long ago struck between the humans and the dragons—the deal that promised the dragons would keep control over the rains and the storms and the floods so long as the humans gave them gold coins and valuables for their collections in return. And it was only once the humans decided that they wanted the best of both sides, that they wanted to keep the gold and keep the favorable weather conditions as well, that the dragons began to lash out. 

Instead of coming into the cities to collect the gold they were due, the dragons allowed the humans to keep it as they so wished and took other things instead: cows and sheep and chickens, roofs and sheds and walls, children and adults and the elderly. They took anything their eyes landed upon, but never the gold. They always left the gold, a reminder to the humans that remained that it had all begun because of their greed. 

But the humans didn’t see it that way, and they didn’t long tolerate the lesson the dragons were trying to teach. They decided to fight back, took up arms and set off into the mountains and slayed their first dragon—a youngling, barely a few weeks old—while its mother stretched her wings. 

And that was when the war truly began, when the dragons mourned the loss of one of their own and raged at the humans for the way they were treated, fought back against every advance thrown at them and gradually began to lose. And the humans rallied the cause the whole way through, never once pausing to think about what might happen if the dragons were no longer around to temper the skies. 

But after the war was over, fallen dragon blood freshly dried in the dirt, they were forced to remember. The one that remained, high on a mountain with a taste for revenge coating his tongue, let it rain for days. 

He flooded the human cities and villages and crop fields, his eyes flooded with stinging tears to match. He stood on his mountain and he watched the humans suffer, watched them look to the skies and cry, and he enjoyed it. But he did not enjoy it for long. 

So he sang a soft song to the clouds and let the humans hear, let them know he was still alive and if they wanted to be truly rid of the dragons, they’d have to kill him, too. 

He waited for days, and no one came. 

He waited for weeks, and he never saw another soul. 

He waited for months, and watched the human cities creep farther and farther away from the base of his mountain, reaching further into the rich, fertile lands and leaving behind the towering peaks he called home. 

He waited for years, and he knew then for sure that they had no interest in him. The humans weren’t coming for him, and it left him lost, confused, without purpose. If the humans didn’t want to slay him, didn’t want to see him dead on the ground, then... what was he supposed to do now?


	2. alone with you—fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because Keith was smiling, his pointed teeth poking past his lips, and he could hear the erratic beat of Lance’s heart fill the empty space of the cavern, as if Keith was the predator and he was the prey. Lance was scared. The human was scared. 
> 
> And he should have been, because if Keith ever saw him again, he’d kill him before he could blink his eyes.

Keith was certain he could hear footsteps. 

But that was impossible, because there hadn’t been a visitor in his cave for almost fifty years. Any humans who might have known the location of his nest were likely dead and gone, and anyone who had any interest in him was probably coming to end his life, which would be a hard task to complete alone. 

But no matter the impossibility of the situation, he was on edge—up and pacing around his cave anxiously, trying to think through a plan as he listened to the  _ tap, tap, tap  _ of soft steps growing ever-closer. And after awhile, not only could he hear something but he could  _ smell  _ it, the tangy taste of human skin he hadn’t caught a whiff of in quite some time. 

He swallowed the rush of fear that hit him so quickly it almost made him dizzy, shaking his head and baring his teeth at the emptiness of his cavern in an attempt to practice being intimidating and fearsome. He hadn’t been required to strike fear into a human since his kind had been slaughtered by them, so he was more than a little out of practice. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to scare this human anyway, depending on what they had come for. How had they heard about him? How had they  _ found _ him? And why had they come for him  _ now, _ after fifty years of absolutely nothing?

He lumbered over to the entrance of his cave and sat back on his haunches, deciding to wait out the human’s arrival. No matter what was about to occur, even if this was to be the day he died, he would face it without fear. What good was a life spent on his own, anyway?

By the time the human finally came into Keith’s line of vision, the stench of him was overwhelming. But it wasn’t truly a stench, Keith supposed, because it wasn’t necessarily unpleasant. The human smelled like flower pollen and fresh air and rain, scents that hardly ever reached the depths of his cave where Keith spent most of his time, sat upon the hoards of gold his ancestors had collected, counting the pieces again and again and again. 

And the human didn’t look unpleasant, either. He looked soft and curious and kind, gazing up at Keith’s towering form with a sort of reverence in his eyes. But it could have just as easily been a trick, so Keith didn’t trust him. He simply stared down at him, the tip of his tail thumping rhythmically against the floor. 

It was another moment before the human seemingly gathered the courage to speak, his tongue darting out to wet his lips before they parted. “Um… Hello, Mr. Dragon, sir.”

Keith couldn’t help but let out a snort at the greeting, his eyes narrowing as he looked him up and down. He was dressed simply, wearing a tunic and a pair of worn pants—cropped a few inches above the ankle and threadbare in the knees. They were clothes meant for the human realm, not a trip into the mountains, but Keith’s cave was warm and safe, a hidden sanctuary away from the biting cold. But still, Keith wondered how the tiny human had made it so far, wearing clothes like that. 

“Hello,” Keith eventually replied when the human did nothing but stand and stare, neck craned back to look Keith in the eyes. “What are you doing in my cave?”

His guest looked shocked to hear words from Keith’s mouth, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. His mouth hung open slightly as he continued to stare, eyes wide and hands hanging uselessly at his sides. He eventually seemed to gather his wits and closed his mouth, only to open it again a second later with words of his own. “I’m— Well, I came to see if you were real. They tell plenty of stories about you back at home, but… I guess I just wanted to see it for myself.”

Keith snorted again, shaking his head a bit in disbelief. Only fifty years and he’d already been reduced to mere fairytales? How insulting. “Well, then I suppose you’ve accomplished your mission. Goodbye.” He stood up and turned back to the warm safety of his nest, assuming the exchange was over and prepared to settle down and wait for the human to go running back to his village, rallying the crowds and bringing them back for one last kill. 

Or maybe the human would keep his discovery to himself, and Keith would live another fifty years in quiet, empty solitude. No matter what, he had nothing more for the human and the human had nothing more for him. Or he so thought. 

He was barely more than five steps into his retreat when he heard the human cry out, sounding hesitant but urgent all the same. “Wait!”

Keith turned back to him with a glower, grumbling softly in his chest. “What do you want?”

The human, if possible, looked even smaller now. His shoulders had slumped from their strong, squared position and the light in his eyes burned just a little dimmer, and Keith couldn’t help but take pity on him. He took another step back in the human’s direction, attempting to smooth his scaly features into something far more welcoming. 

The human seemed to respond to the change immediately, a small smile cracking his lips. “It might seem crazy, but… I want to get to know you. More than just a simple introduction.”

At that, Keith laughed. The human frowned at his response, but Keith couldn’t have helped himself if he tried. “Me? What does a silly little human boy like you want to get to know  _ me _ for?”

He looked confused by Keith’s question, as if it was a stupid one. “Well—You’re a dragon! Who wouldn’t want to get to know a dragon?”

Keith shook his head dismissively, turning back to his cave. “I’m not interested in being a novelty toy for your enjoyment, human. Go find something else to bother.” 

“But… aren’t you lonely up here…?”

Keith paused again in his tracks, tail swaying slightly. It was obvious the human didn't know what had happened all those years ago, or else he never would have come up to Keith’s cave, expecting to be—what, friends? Acquaintances? But it seemed as if the human’s intentions were pure, as if he’d made the dangerous trek up the side of his mountain in his threadbare clothes  _ simply  _ so that he could talk to Keith and keep him company. So Keith turned back around once more, eyeing the human critically. 

He stood rather unassumingly in the mouth of Keith’s cave, looking at him as if he’d hurt his feelings, somehow. And it only managed to reassure Keith that his decision was the right one, that one or two conversations with this either brave or stupid human couldn’t hurt either of them. So he huffed out a soft breath and motioned for the human to follow him deeper into his cave, back where it was safe and warm and he could keep an eye on his hoards of gold. 

He heard the human’s soft footfalls following behind him as he took them deeper, and it made a strange feeling erupt in his chest. He hadn’t had a visitor in a long time. 

“What’s your name, human?” he asked as they went, the cold of the outside falling away with every step they took. He realized then that he had forgotten to ask the human if he was cold, but he knew the issue would be solved soon if he was. There was nowhere more warm and comforting in all of the human realm than Keith’s cave. 

“Leandro, but everyone calls me Lance,” the human answered, voice echoing in Keith’s ears. Keith hummed and turned a corner, closing his eyes and compressing his bones until he was in his human form, a form he hadn’t used in a long time. He kept his horns, his tail, his wings, patches of his scales, his clawed fingertips and his fiery amethyst eyes—it gave him an edge over humans that he couldn’t afford to give up—but he figured the impending conversation would go better if Keith looked a bit more like what the human, Lance, was used to. 

Lance followed him around the corner and immediately let out a soft squeak, pausing behind Keith as the gears in his brain seemed to turn. “I—You’re human?”

“I have a human form, if that’s what you mean,” Keith said, amused. Lance’s eyes seemed to trail along Keith’s body slowly for a moment, taking in the way he pressed human and dragon into one before they suddenly snapped back to Keith’s face, a small blush dusting his cheeks. 

“And you’re, um… also naked.” 

Keith scowled and looked down, eyes skimming along his shimmering, ruby red scales woven in scattered clusters across his pale skin. Did the human have a problem with them? “What’s wrong with my scales?” 

“Nothing,” Lance answered immediately, clearing his throat. “It’s just, ah… humans typically keep this,” he gestured to the apex of his thighs, blush deepening, “covered.” 

Keith looked down again and almost immediately understood what he meant, eyes roaming over the place where the scales on the insides of thighs softened into smooth skin and soft flesh, the very same place the human had just gestured to on his own body. Keith grumbled softly and turned around again, leading Lance the last few feet into his cavern, mentally shifting through his catalogued list of all the things he had stashed away, trying to find something he could use to cover himself so the human felt more comfortable. Gods, the things he was doing to accommodate this human. 

He moved over to one of his chests in the corner as they entered his nest proper, leaving Lance to gape in the entrance as he dug through the contents and pulled out a pair of pants, dusty and faded with age. He curled his lip in distaste but pulled them on quickly, grimacing at the way the fabric rubbed against his sensitive skin and caught at the rough edges of his scales. How did humans stand to wear these?

He shut the chest again and moved back to where Lance was still looking around in awe, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. He looked as if he hadn’t moved since Keith had left him which made him frown, waving a hand in front of his face. “Lance?”

“You  _ live  _ here?” Lance asked, his voice almost a whisper as his eyes cut over to stare at Keith instead of their surroundings. 

“Well, yes. Where else would I live?”

Lance ignored the question completely, moving farther into the nest and walking up to one of the piles of gold scattered across the space, reaching out to touch. Keith bristled but didn't make a move to stop him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Is all this yours?”

“Yes,” Keith said shortly, walking past him to inspect the empty floor space between the piles. He wasn’t used to having company, but he knew enough to realize he would need some sort of space in which to entertain. Lance would probably need a place to sit, especially after such a long journey, and would maybe require food and water as well. He crossed the room to a pile in the back, pulling some pieces of furniture from beneath the mountain of gold coins and listening as they shifted and came tinkering down the slant of the pile, pooling on the ground at Keith’s feet. 

The noise drew Lance’s attention, the awe a bit more contained on his face as Keith met his gaze. Keith brought the pieces to the center of the floor and sat them side by side, patting the cushions and brushing away the dust, taking a step back once he was done to inspect his work. He cleared his throat when he saw Lance watching, gesturing to the chairs with a sweep of his hand. “You can sit, if you want. Do you need anything else? Food, water? What is it that humans eat?” 

Lance watched him with a small smile on his lips, choosing one of the chairs and sitting down. “I’m good, thank you. I ate just before I left.” 

“Ah,” Keith said, nodding as he took his place on the other chair. It took him a second to figure it out, sitting down hard on his tail and squishing his wings up between himself and the back of the chair the first time around. He hissed softly and adjusted, draping his wings over the back of the chair and tugging his tail out from underneath him, rubbing over his aching scales. Dragons weren’t built for chairs, human form or not. He ended up crossing his legs as well after a second, feeling less stiff and uncomfortable sitting that way, since it almost perfectly mirrored the way Lance himself was sitting. 

Well. What were they supposed to do now? 

They sat in silence for another few seconds before Lance spoke up, that same smile dancing on his cheeks. “This is your cave, then?” 

It seemed to Keith a stupid question, but it was a break from the silence so he answered it gratefully, looking around and trying to imagine what it would be like to see it for the first time. “Yes. Over there,” he pointed to a lopsided circle made of leaves and sticks and animal furs, large enough to fit his dragon form inside, “is my nest, these are my piles of gold, and that’s really all there is because that’s really all I need.”

“It’s kind of homey,” Lance commented, gazing at Keith’s nest before looking back at him. “It’s also kind of... sad. You really never get lonely here?”

“I do.” Keith shrugged, seeing no reason to lie. He’d never see this human after today, anyway. “But I’ve gotten used to it. It doesn’t bother me so much anymore.” Lance didn’t answer, frowning softly as he let his eyes drift upon the mountains of gold rising on either side of their chairs. 

“What about these, then? What do you need them for?” 

“I’m protecting them,” Keith answered immediately, eyes flicking over them anxiously. “My ancestors worked very hard to gather them, so I’m watching over them for them.”

“But what do you  _ need _ them for?” Lance pressed, the curiosity obvious in his eyes. 

“To look pretty,” Keith replied, grinning slowly at the affronted look on Lance’s face. 

“There are a lot of people down there that could use these, Keith,” Lance said, frowning. “This is a lot of gold. You could feed an entire town for months.” 

Something sour churned in Keith’s gut at his words, his features threatening to twist into a scowl. Lance’s ignorance of the past wasn’t enough to calm him, not when the mere reminder of what the gold stood for sent fire flooding through his veins. “I could,” he snapped, undeterred by Lance’s startled expression. “But it’s mine, and I’m not going to.” 

Lance stared at him for a long moment, eyes locked on his. It felt as if he was reading him, learning him, gazing into his eyes and uncovering his deepest secrets, and it unsettled him. He wanted to break contact, wanted to look away, but he wouldn’t. He was stronger,  _ scarier _ than the gaze of some mortal. 

When Lance finally looked away it was with that same disappointed frown pulling at his lips, a similar disappointment drowning his words when he spoke. “All right, then. Don’t.”

Keith blinked, confused. He’d expected Lance to fight back, to argue with him and make some point about how the humans needed the gold far more than some greedy little dragon. But he didn’t, simply made his disappointment clear and moved on. And it should have made Keith happy, because he’d  _ won, _ after all. But it, similar to his stare, unsettled him, left him feeling out of place. And he hated it. 

“I won’t,” Keith assured him, letting his eyes run over the piles again. He’d lost too much to give it all away just like that, even if it truly meant nothing. Dragons were protective at best and downright territorial at worst, and Keith wasn’t about to undermine centuries worth of history and natural instincts just because one tiny human was disappointed with him. “Anyway, what was it you wanted to know about me? You’ll need to be leaving soon if you want to get back down the mountain before night falls.” 

Lance returned his gaze to him and let out a thoughtful noise, his hand coming up to rest at his chin. “I don’t know. What can you tell me?”

“What?” Keith asked, furrowing his brow. 

“What can you tell me about yourself?” Lance asked again, scooting a bit closer on his couch, eyes alight with curiosity once more. “I’d love to know anything, anything at all.”

Keith thought for a moment, the sourness still folding over itself again and again and again as he sat, making him feel a bit sick. He didn’t like this human, didn’t care for it, didn’t want to befriend it the same way it seemed to be striving for. He didn’t want to see it or any other human again for as long as he lived, didn’t want to be forced to remember what they’d done to him and his family. So he opened his mouth and let the sourness pour out, let it fill the empty space between them. “If I could wipe every human from the face of this miserable planet, I’d do it. I’d do it without hesitation.”

And Lance stared, and stared and stared and stared, and eventually got up and began to make his way out of the cave, his eyes never leaving Keith’s form. Because Keith was smiling, his pointed teeth poking past his lips, and he could hear the erratic beat of Lance’s heart fill the empty space of the cavern, as if Keith was the predator and he was the prey. Lance was scared. The human was  _ scared. _

And he should have been, because if Keith ever saw him again, he’d kill him before he could blink his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos much appreciated! the next chapter will be up next week!
> 
> come follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/professionlmess) if u want


	3. does that make sense—fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What about you, then? We’ve been getting to know me, but I want to know about you.”
> 
> Lance fixed him with a look, then, his lips twitching up at the corners in amusement. “You’ve barely told me anything about you, Keith. All I know is that you hate humans and you live by yourself in this incredibly spacious cave.”
> 
> Keith huffed softly, ruffling his wings as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, there’s nothing else to tell.”
> 
> “Sure there is!” Lance said, pulling his legs into his chair with him as he turned his entire body to face Keith, the frown from earlier completely gone and replaced with unexpected enthusiasm. “If I tell you things about me, will you tell me more about yourself?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's back it's lancey boy, certified dumbass

The last thing Keith expected was for the human to come back. But he was there the next day, cheeks and nose painted pink from the cold and teeth chattering loudly in the silence, wearing clothes that were just as old and worn as his outfit the day before. 

And since he was there, Keith was conflicted. As sure as he’d been before that he’d kill the next human he saw, something inside him hesitated. He had every reason to hate the humans, and he knew that. They’d taken  _ everything _ from him, and he’d be a damn fool to ever forgive them of that. But he didn’t want to  _ become _ them. He didn’t want to ever live to see the day that he became as bad as they were. Maybe the only way he could truly get revenge was to slaughter them the way they’d slaughtered his own, but if that was true, then Keith wasn’t sure he’d ever get the revenge he craved. 

He’d much rather live the rest of his life in the startling solitude he’d since gotten used to than ever do something that put him and the humans on the same level. 

So he closed his eyes and adopted his partial human form, walking from the depths of his cavern to greet the human who stood there uncertainly, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth. 

“Lance,” he greeted, stopping in front of him a few feet away. 

“Keith,” he returned with his arms crossed in front of his chest, although Keith couldn’t tell if it was meant to protect against himself or the chill. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“I told you yesterday. I’m getting to know you.”

“I thought you weren’t going to come back.” 

Lance gave him a surprisingly soft smile at that, shaking his head. “If you’re trying to scare me away, Keith, you’re going to have to try harder than that.” 

Keith blinked at him before turning on his heel and leading him into the cave, the chattering of Lance’s teeth quieting and eventually coming to a stop as they moved deeper, the cold falling away. They sat back on the chairs that Keith hadn’t bothered to move and he offered Lance food as drink as he had before, still unsure as to what humans ate but willing to fetch something all the same. Lance, however, once again declined his offer, insisting that he was plenty full. So Keith nodded and sat back in his chair (much quicker to properly arrange his tail and wings this time around), once more at a loss for how to proceed. 

Lance seemed less forthcoming this time, sitting quietly on his chair and keeping his gaze to the floor. But Keith could tell he was thinking about something, working something out in his mind, so Keith sat and waited, trusting Lance to speak when he was ready. 

“How come you stay up here all alone, so far away from everyone else?” he asked eventually, raising his head to look at him. 

“I’m sure you must know that the humans don’t exactly welcome me with open arms,” Keith said, giving him a look. “The last time the humans and the dragons interacted, horrible things happened. For the safety of both me and the humans, it’s better that I stay away.” 

“What happened the last time?” Lance asked, furrowing his brow in concern.

“It doesn’t matter,” Keith said, shaking his head. “I’m sure your human leader has kept it hidden from you for a reason. It’s not my place to be the one to tell you.” 

“They won’t know if I find out,” Lane said, frowning. “You can tell me.” 

“You don’t  _ need _ to know, Lance,” Keith said, shaking his head again. “Some things are much better left in the past.”

Lance continued to frown at him, looking almost petulant. “Okay, fine,” Lance said eventually, in a way that let Keith know the issue was far from dropped. He let out a soft sigh, rolling his eyes.

“Look, Lance. I promise it’s not important. What happened, happened. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do to change that. So just… let it go, okay?

Lance looked a little more placated when he nodded, although he still had a little frown on his lips that made something in Keith’s gut twist unhappily. So he scoured his brain, searching for something he could say to change the subject, to get that pout off his lips. “What about you, then? We’ve been getting to know me, but I want to know about you.”

Lance fixed him with a look, then, his lips twitching up at the corners in amusement. “You’ve barely told me anything about you, Keith. All I know is that you hate humans and you live by yourself in this incredibly spacious cave.”

Keith huffed softly, ruffling his wings as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, there’s nothing else to tell.”

“Sure there is!” Lance said, pulling his legs into his chair with him as he turned his entire body to face Keith, the frown from earlier completely gone and replaced with unexpected enthusiasm. “If I tell you things about me, will you tell me more about yourself?”

Keith gave him a bewildered look. “I can’t think of a single other thing to tell you about myself.”

Lance groaned softly, rolling his eyes. “Okay, how about this. I’ll come up with questions, and we’ll both answer them. Sound good?”

“Well… I suppose,” Keith said, frowning slightly. He’d never really done anything like this before,  _ ever, _ but it couldn’t be that bad. Right?

“Okay,” Lance said, the amount of excitement audible in his voice surprising to Keith. “Let’s start with, uh… what’s your favorite color?”

“My... favorite color…?” Keith repeated, bewildered. Why in Altea would Lance want to know something like _ that? _

“Yeah! Come on, humor me. What’s your favorite color?” Lance pressed. 

“Um…” Keith had never really thought about which color was his favorite, seeing as it was one of the least important things he could spend his time thinking about. But he thought about it now, running through the options in his head. Back when his family was alive, back when he was free to roam the land like it belonged to him, he’d always liked spending his time in the skies. The grass was a rich green, his mountains were a deep brown, his family had all been simmering red and the glimpses of human villages he could see were a flurry of color and activity at all hours of the day, but the sky was a striking, breathtaking shade of blue that Keith hadn’t forgotten, even in all the years he’d gone without truly seeing it. 

Blue was the color of the sky which had once belonged to him, the color of the ocean which was one of the only things mighty enough to defeat him, and the color of Lance’s eyes, which were watching him intently, waiting for an answer. 

“Blue,” Keith told him, unable to meet his eyes, suffocating under the intensity of his gaze. “My favorite color is blue.”

“Huh,” Lance said, sounding surprised. “I thought it might’ve been black, or something.”

Keith furrowed his brow and shook his head, raising his eyes to tentatively meet Lance’s gaze. “What’s yours, then?”

“Mine’s red,” Lance said easily, as if he’d said the same thing a million times before. Maybe it was a common thing for humans to ask each other their favorite color, although Keith couldn’t for the life of him figure out why it mattered. “Now, let’s see… Next question. What’s your favorite food?”

Keith blinked, taken aback once again by the trivial nature of the questions Lance was asking. Did humans really have  _ nothing _ more important to discuss? “I mostly eat whatever I can find in the trees below my mountain.”

“Like what?” Lance asked, raising his eyebrows in an obvious invitation for Keith to continue. 

“Nocturnal animals, mostly,” Keith said with a shrug. “Whatever’s out at night.” 

_ “Like what?”  _ Lance asked again, raising his eyebrows impossibly further.

“Uh, raccoons. Foxes, sometimes. The occasional deer. Mice, squirrels, skunks, owls. Beavers, if I can find them. Stuff like that.”

“And which of those is your favorite?” Lance asked, sounding almost as if he was talking to a child. Keith scowled a little but thought about it, remembering the way it felt to sink his teeth into each one and taste the flesh on his tongue, trying to decide which pleased him the most.

“Raccoons,” he said eventually. “They’re always the fattest, juiciest little things. They eat well, you know, stealing from your human villages. And I get to reap the benefits of that.” 

“Hmm, that’s kinda gross,” Lance said, wrinkling his nose. “I don’t eat raccoons, but my mom is really good at baking and she makes the most delicious garlic knots of anyone in the entire kingdom, so I do eat a lot of those. They’re my favorite food.”

“Garlic knots…?” Keith asked, confused. 

“You’ve never had one?” Lance gasped, sounding scandalized. Keith didn't want to question why he’d assumed he’d had.

“No,” Keith said, shaking his head.

“I’ll bring you some,” Lance said, letting out a little sigh as he settled back in his chair. “Mmm, they’re so good. You’ll love them.”

Keith still didn't really know what they even were, but he didn't question him. “What’s the next question?”

“Oh, right!” Lance said, sitting up again. “How about, uh… what’s something you hope never changes?”

Keith blinked, surprised by the question for the third time in a row. It didn't feel quite as pointless as the other two had, and he wasn’t sure how to answer. A lot of things in his life had been exactly the same since the war, and most of them he would give anything to change. He hated being alone, hated being stuck in his cave, unable to risk leaving during daylight and unable to do much more than gather enough food and water to survive during the nighttime before he had to return. This life of solitude wasn’t something that had ever suited his kind, let alone Keith in particular. Since he was a youngling he had proved himself to be a dragon that cared very much about those around him, and he’d had all of that cruelly taken away from him. He’d had  _ everything _ taken away, except one: his life. So he supposed that was his answer.

“I hope the humans never come for me,” Keith said, his voice coming out more vulnerable than he would have liked. “I hope they continue to let me live.” 

He saw the moment Lance’s brow furrowed, had the time to regret his perhaps too-honest answer before Lance opened his mouth. “Why wouldn’t they? Why would they come after you?” 

Keith let out a sigh, giving a small shake of his head. “History, Lance. That’s all you need to know.”

“That’s not fair, Keith,” Lance said, narrowing his eyes at him. “You keep bringing up this  _ history _ between the dragons and the humans, which is  _ obviously _ something important, but you won’t tell me anything about it!”

“Because history is in the  _ past,  _ Lance. It doesn’t matter anymore. There’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do about it, because it happened and it’s done and there’s no point in dwelling on it.” It was the same thing Keith had been telling himself for fifty years, the only thing that kept him from throwing himself at the human villages and wrecking as much as he could before they took him down. There was no point to throw away his life over resentment from something that happened in the past, something he couldn’t change. As much as he wished there was something,  _ anything _ he could do, there wasn’t. All he could do was keep living, if only because the rest of his kind hadn’t been given the choice. By some miracle the humans had decided they didn't care about him, didn't want to mess with him—and it was likely the only reason Keith had made it this long, which would make him a damn fool to do anything to draw attention to himself again.

“But it  _ does _ matter,” Lance insisted, still staring at him with those piercing blue eyes. “How are you supposed to learn from history if you don’t know what the history  _ is?” _

“I think we all learned plenty,” Keith muttered, shaking his head.

“Yeah?” Lance asked, leaning forward. “And what did you learn?”

“Nothing that matters anymore,” Keith said. “Really, Lance. It doesn’t matter. If it did, don’t you think I’d be dying to tell you all about it?”

Lance let out a sigh and sat back again, crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine, whatever. If you say it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. But I still think you’re wrong. It  _ has  _ to matter.”

“Think I’m wrong, then,” Keith said, shrugging. “But if you knew, you’d know I’m right. The best—the  _ only  _ thing any of us can do now is let the past be in the past.”

Lance didn't answer, shaking his head a little as his eyes flitted over to stare at the pile of gold to Keith’s right. Keith let out a sigh, rubbing his hand over his face and the base of his horns before he attempted to get their conversation back on track. “What’s your answer, then? What do you hope will never change?”

Lance let out a sigh of his own, tipping his head back to rest against the back of his chair. “My family. We’ve been really fortunate, especially for a family our size… We’ve been able to stay together, been able to make just enough to support ourselves and not have to send the little ones off to find work or marry anyone off to accumulate a fortune. The only thing I’ve ever really wanted was for that to stay the same, to always have the people I love close to me, happy and well-fed.”

“That’s sweet,” Keith said, voice soft in an attempt to cover the sound of a chasm opening inside his chest, ripping apart his heart from the inside out. He remembered what it was like to feel that way.

“Yeah,” Lance said, seeming to contemplate it for another second before he moved on, drawing an audible breath. “Anyway, tell me why you stay here, all alone in this cave.”

“I’ve already told you that,” Keith said, confused. 

“No, I know. I mean… there’s a whole world out there beyond the little corner we call home, you know? So what’s keeping you here, especially if you have such bad blood with my people? Why haven’t you gotten out of here, gone to see what there is to see?” 

Keith stared at him, at a loss for words. In all the time he’d been locking himself away, hiding from the light of day and the problems of his past, he’d never even considered what might happen if he flew away one night and never returned. Who knew what he’d find out there? Who knew what all that green land and empty sky had to offer him? When he thought about it, he supposed that his past  _ was _ the thing keeping him here, the main reason he’d never run away to somewhere else, but now that Lance had posed the question, he couldn’t help but imagine.  _ What if? _

“Fear,” Keith said finally, giving a little shrug in an attempt to dilute the truth of his words. “That’s why I haven’t left. I’m afraid.” Afraid he’d forget, afraid he’d never be able to come back, afraid there might be some dragon out there that was a survivor just like him and was looking for him, someone he might never know about if he up and left. If he stayed here then he could wait, could wait and wait and wait everyday for the rest of his life to see another dragon amble into his cave, tired and battered but alive and happy and home. He cut Lance off before he could question him, throwing it back at him. “What about you, why don’t you travel? The idea certainly seems to appeal to you.”

“Same reason as before,” Lance said, giving Keith a shrug in return. “My family. I think I’d miss them too much if I were to leave.” 

“You couldn’t take them with you?” Keith asked.

“No,” Lance laughed, shaking his head. “We can barely make it to the market on Sunday mornings without losing one of us. I don’t think we’d make it very far.” 

“So… you’re just going to stay here forever, then?” 

“Yeah,” Lance said, as if it didn't bother him, as if he hadn’t seemed appalled by the idea only moments earlier. “I guess so.”

Keith adjusted the spread of his wings and leaned his head back against his chair to match Lance’s pose, staring up at the ceiling of his cave as he thought. Oh, how short the human life must seem. For Keith, fifty years in one place was nothing. No matter how long he decided to stay here, he still had all the time in the world to leave. And while Keith didn't know exactly how old Lance was, fifty years for him could easily be more than he even lived. What did the humans do with so little time? 

“How old are you?” Keith asked, rolling his head to the side to gaze at Lance.

“Eighteen,” he answered, copying Keith’s movements to meet his eyes. “How old are you?”

“In human years or dragon years?”

“Both.”

“Well, I just turned nine hundred and fifty about a month ago, which is about nineteen in human years,” Keith informed him. 

Lance gaped back at him, eyes wide.  _ “Nine hundred and fifty?” _

“That’s what I said.” Keith nodded. 

“You’re ancient!” Lane cried, throwing his hands up in the air. 

Keith frowned at him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Didn't you hear me? I’m only nineteen in human years. I’m quite young for a dragon.” 

“Well, how old do dragons get?” Lance asked, bewildered. 

“They can live forever, if nothing kills them,” Keith said with a shrug. Lance continued to stare at him, his jaw working as he struggled to process the information Keith was giving to him. The word “woah” spoken in a breathless sort of reverence was apparently all Lance could come up with after several minutes of trying, and it made Keith laugh. “Yeah. If all goes well, I’ll be alive the day the world dies.”

“You really wanna see that?” Lance asked, furrowing his brow. “How do you know it’ll even happen?”

“I think it’s foolish to believe the world we know will never come to an end,” Keith said, shrugging. “Everything that lives has to die eventually.”

“But you won’t die,” Lance pointed out.

“I will if the world does,” Keith said. “Or if someone kills me.”

“Right,” Lance said after a moment, a soft frown tugging at his lips. 

“Everything dies,” Keith said again, trying to convince himself as much as Lance. “No matter what you want, everything dies. That’s just the way it is.”

“But that’s okay,” Lance said, meeting his eyes. “Right? That’s just fine.”

Keith held his gaze for second before nodding, his throat suddenly dry. “Right. It’s fine. It’s the way things should be.”

Lance paused before giving him a nod of his own, turning his gaze back to the ceiling. “Right. It’s the law of the land. Now, are you ready for another question?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, allowing himself to look at Lance while he was distracted, running his eyes along the planes of his face and the color of his eyes, the patches of skin poking through the holes in his clothes and his fingertips drumming mindlessly along the meat of his thigh, keeping time to a rhythm unheard by anyone but him. 

“All right. Have you ever had a pet?”

Keith stared at him, narrowing his eyes. “A what?”

“A pet,” Lance repeated, looking at him again and elaborating when Keith continued to stare. “You know, an animal that you own and feed and take care of and keep in your house with you? They’re called pets. Tons of humans have them.”

“Why in Altea would I  _ own _ an animal?” Keith asked, bewildered. “I only interact with animals when I intend to  _ eat _ them.”

“I think you’d like to own a dog,” Lance continued as if Keith had said nothing. “You seem like a dog person. But then again, you might prefer a cat. I can’t really tell yet.” 

“I don’t want to own any kind of animal, no matter how amusing you humans seem to find it,” Keith huffed, glaring at him.

“Aw, come on,” Lane said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be like that. It’s relaxing! My family’s dog always makes me feel better. They’re good companions, you know? They make you less lonely.” 

“I don’t need a companion,” Keith hissed, despite the words being dreadfully untrue. It was the only thing he’d truly wished for since the war, not that he wanted to admit it. “And the last place I would ever attempt to find companionship would be with an  _ animal.” _

“Your loss, then,” Lance said, humming.

“Where would I ever  _ get _ a dog?” Keith asked. 

“I could bring you one, if you wanted. Hell, you’ve got enough money to buy a thousand dogs if you wanted, maybe more.”

“Well I don’t want a thousand. I don’t even want one. Besides, how do you know it wouldn’t freeze on the way up the mountain?”

“Come on, Keith. Dogs are stronger than that! It’d be just fine.”

“Whatever, Lance,” Keith said, trying to pitch his voice in a way that sounded final. “I don’t want a dog.”

“Fine,” Lance said, blowing out a breath. “Be that way.” 

“Shouldn’t you be leaving soon?” Keith asked in a poor attempt to change the subject. “It’ll be getting dark soon.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just let me ask you one final question.”

“What is it?”

“Do you like to read?”

“Do I—What?”

“Do you like to read?” Lance asked again, sitting up and gazing at him with wide, almost vulnerable eyes that reminded Keith of the owls he liked to catch sometimes. “It just seems kind of boring up here, and my older sister Veronica has a lot of books because she’s super smart and loves to read, so I thought maybe I could borrow some from her and bring them up here so you’d have something more interesting to do.”

“I’ve never read a book,” Keith found himself saying before he could stop it, something foreign and warm-feeling blooming in his chest. 

“You can read English, right?” Lance asked, blinking at him and tilting his head in a strangely innocent gesture, as if the thought had never occurred to him.

“Yes,” Keith said, nodding. “I’ve just… never had access to any books before.”

“That settles it,” Lance said as he stood, brushing the dust from the back of his pant legs. “I’ll bring you some books next time I come.”

“Okay,” Keith said, unsure of what else he  _ could _ say as he stood and copied Lance’s gesture. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Lance said as he began to back away, a little smile on his lips as if the thought of coming back again was something that excited him. “Same place, same time.”

“Okay,” Keith repeated, feeling almost as if he was in a daze, unable to break himself free. He hadn’t been much for company in the past fifty years—quite understandably, he would think—but already the thought of Lance leaving and failing to return made him feel a bit sick. 

And because of that, it wasn’t until Lance was almost out of sight that Keith remembered the thought that’d struck him earlier, the thought that had him calling out Lance’s name and urging him to wait. Lance came to a stop and looked back at him as Keith made his way to the nearest pile of gold and scooped up a couple handfuls, pouring them into a leather satchel laying on the floor nearby and walking over to place it in Lance’s waiting palm. “If you’re going to keep coming back, get yourself some warmer clothes for the journey.”

Lance nodded and thanked him, and Keith could’ve sworn that he saw a light dusting of pink across his cheeks as he turned away and made his leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos much appreciated !!! the next chapter will be up early next week in honor of sweet baby keith's birthday


	4. i wanna steal your soul—winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Lance…?” Keith asked uncertainly, the only thing he could think of to say. Lance’s eyes flashed as he blew out a breath, taking a step towards Keith to close up the gap he’d put between them. Lance was glaring at him, his gaze sharp and unwavering, and Keith felt short of breath, confused and scared despite the tiny part of his mind screaming that he had the upper hand, that he would always have the upper hand when it came to ignorant humans that didn't know how to kill him.
> 
> “It took me a long time,” Lance said after a long pause, his voice soft, quiet, deadly, echoless in the breath of space between them, “but I finally found it. I had to dig, had to pull favors, had to risk my safety a few more times than I would’ve liked, but I finally found it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday to keith!!! here's an early birthday update in honor of our sweet baby boy

Weeks passed so quickly now that Keith didn't even really register them, each day filled with the noisy howl of the wind outside his home, the smell of ink on old paper pages and the sight of Lance’s pink cheeks and bright eyes. Lance kept his promise and brought Keith books to read each time he needed new ones, and they helped keep his mind busy and fill the empty space between each of Lance’s visits. He hadn’t figured himself to be one that was much for reading, but he couldn’t deny how much faster the days went now that he had something to do with his time, now that he had whole other worlds to lose himself in while he waited. 

It was well into winter now, and although Keith’s cave was warm the journey to get there was not, so Keith was pleased each time Lance showed up wearing the new clothes he’d bought with the gold Keith had given him, bundled up and properly protected from the biting cold. Keith was always quick to usher Lance into his cave once he arrived, eager to pull him away from the lingering fingers of the chill and into his nest where it was warm and Keith could have Lance all to himself. 

However, this time when Lance arrived, Keith wasn’t greeted by pink cheeks and smiling eyes. Keith wasn’t greeted by a face at all, rather the top of a head, a nest of messy brown hair thoroughly tousled by the wind. Keith stared for a few seconds, confused and unsure of how to approach, unsure of what was really happening at all. But he didn't have to wait long before Lance raised his head on his own, his features twisted into the angriest, ugliest expression that Keith had ever seen him wear.

He took an instinctive step back, his breath catching in his lungs as he stared and stared. Because Keith could tell that look was directed at  _ him, _ that he’d done something worthy of the harsh scowl on his lips and the meanness glinting in his eyes, the rhythmic clenching of his fists and the twitch in his jaw that indicated he was holding himself back, trying to convince himself not to do whatever it was he was thinking of doing. 

“Lance…?” Keith asked uncertainly, the only thing he could think of to say. Lance’s eyes flashed as he blew out a breath, taking a step towards Keith to close up the gap he’d put between them. Lance was glaring at him, his gaze sharp and unwavering, and Keith felt short of breath, confused and scared despite the tiny part of his mind screaming that he had the upper hand, that he would  _ always _ have the upper hand when it came to ignorant humans that didn't know how to kill him.

“It took me a long time,” Lance said after a long pause, his voice soft, quiet, deadly, echoless in the breath of space between them, “but I finally found it. I had to dig, had to pull favors, had to risk my  _ safety _ a few more times than I would’ve liked, but I  _ finally _ found it.”

“Found… what?” Keith asked tentatively, afraid speaking too eagerly would shatter the hesitant truce they found themselves in at the moment. 

“The royal records documenting the war between the humans and dragons that you keep mentioning,” Lance hissed, his eyes narrowing into slits. But it only served to make Keith more confused. If  _ that _ was what he’d found, then what was he so  _ mad _ about? Lance continued before Keith could form a coherent question, voice steadily rising in volume as he carried on. “And  _ now _ I know why you never wanted to tell me anything about it, because you didn’t want to admit that dragons are hideous, vile creatures that have nothing better to do than kill humans for  _ fun!” _

“What are you  _ talking  _ about?” Keith asked, bewildered.

“You  _ know _ what I’m talking about, Keith! You got me up here and tried to spin your sob story about how lonely you are, about how all the humans hate you and you’re stuck up here because you’re  _ afraid,  _ but  _ we’re _ the ones that should be afraid. Us! The humans that you preyed on and  _ murdered _ like we never mattered at all! No wonder they don’t fucking like you, Keith! You killed  _ hundreds _ of us!”

And now it was Keith’s turn to be angry, his eyes flashing yellow as he bared his teeth, a low growl building in his throat as that achingly familiar chasm opened in his chest. Here Lance was, talking to Keith about loss and pain and fear as if he had any idea, as if he really knew what had happened all those years ago. The humans lied in their records, of course they did. He shouldn’t have expected any less. Because it wasn’t enough for them to take everything from him, to erase it from their history books as if it were inconsequential. They had to lie about it, too, had to ensure that no matter  _ what  _ happened, the truth would only live as long as Keith did. 

Keith took a step closer to Lance, relishing in the way some of the anger drained from his face, replaced with the barest hints of fear. It didn’t matter how well he schooled his features, anyway. Keith could smell it on him, clogging his pores as it intensified, encouraged and perpetuated by more and more of Keith’s dragon features melting back into sight. He held onto his humanity the best he could, but it was a hard task with the amount of pure, unadulterated rage Lance’s accusations had unleashed in him.

“Think about it, Lance,” Keith purred softly, his voice deep, dark, laced with something inhuman, something predatory that vibrated in the walls of the cavern around them. “Really  _ think _ about it. In the records you read, what did it say? Dragon, or  _ dragons?” _

Lance, looking as confused now as Keith had felt moments before, took a second to think before answering. “Dragons, plural. What does that have to do with anything?”

“And where do you think the rest of those dragons might  _ be, _ Lance?” Keith asked, ignoring his question to ask one of his own.

“I don’t know!” Lance spat, throwing his arms up and visibly trying to get a grip on his anger again. “I don’t have a list of dragon nest locations! Yours is the only one I know about!”

“And would you like to know why that  _ is,  _ Lance?” Keith said, taking another step towards him, poking the tip of a clawed finger into Lance’s heaving chest. “In all those stories you heard about me, the reason you came up to find me in the first place, how many dragons did they tell of? Because I bet it was only one. I bet it was only me. And it’s not because I live the closest, or because I’m the easiest to find, Lance. That’s not it. It’s because I'm  _ the only dragon left!” _

Lance didn’t answer and Keith didn’t look at him, gritting his teeth and turning away to pace back and forth in front of him, desperately hoping his huffs of anger wouldn’t turn into sobs.

“I used to have a family,” he continued, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. “This cave didn’t used to be just  _ mine. _ Dragons used to roam the land and fill the skies, used to trade and do business with the humans in your kingdom. But humans are greedy,  _ greedy _ little things, and they didn’t want to share with us anymore, didn’t want to give up the things they’d agreed to give. So we dragons tried to teach them a lesson, tried to take things more valuable to them than the gold they refused to hand over. And in turn, the humans murdered every last one of us—all except me, because my mother gave her  _ life _ to keep me well hidden.” 

His more prominent dragon features slipped away again as he opened his fist and released his white-knuckled grip on his anger, the defeat settling over his shoulders like a thick, heavy blanket. “I didn’t want to tell you about the war because it doesn’t matter. Dragons killed humans, humans slaughtered dragons, now I’m the only one left and the humans have no idea. And it doesn’t  _ matter,  _ because there’s nothing anyone can do. Believe me, I’ve  _ tried.”  _ His voice broke on the last word and he cursed himself, squeezing his hands into fists to try to get his emotions under control. “That’s exactly what I  _ always _ told you, that it doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t. I’m living on borrowed time, living a life I wasn’t supposed to get, so who am I to complain about things being unfair? Who am I to rip into the human villages and demand they repay me for all the damage they’ve done? Who am I to let myself stoop to their level and call myself the righteous one? No one, Lance. I’m no one. I can’t do any of those things. So I don’t. I just sit up here and keep watch over the gold my ancestors died for and wait until the day  _ I _ die.” 

Lance was still silent, and Keith thought that maybe he had left, maybe he wasn’t even here anymore. But then he flinched, registering a second too late the feeling of a soft, warm hand taking one of his own, working his arching fingers out of their tight fist and rubbing the pad of a thumb over the indentions his claws had left in his skin. He stood still as Lance gave the other hand the same treatment, eventually holding on tightly to both as he smoothed his thumbs over Keith’s palms, gentle but insistent. 

It wasn’t until Lance had moved his hands up Keith’s arms, rubbing up and down along his biceps, that Keith realized he was trembling, shaking like a leaf beneath Lance’s fingertips. And it was probably the reason Lance gripped his shoulders and pulled him into a hug, wrapping his arms around him tightly just below his wings and holding him close to his chest. Keith hadn’t had a hug in, well… ever. Dragons weren’t much for physical affection in the first place, but especially not in their human forms. So Keith tried not to be embarrassed when he melted into the embrace, looping his arms around Lance’s waist and hooking his chin over his shoulder, letting his eyes slip shut. 

He focused on taking deep, steady breaths as Lance rubbed a hand up and down along his back, grounding him as they stood there in silence. He wasn’t sure when the appropriate time to pull away was, wasn’t sure how long things like this were supposed to last, but Lance was still holding him as tightly as he was before so Keith stopped thinking about it, just let himself take the time to get used to the feeling.

And while it was unfamiliar territory to him, he had to admit it was nice. Feeling the warmth of Lance’s chest pressed up against his own, the soft skin of Lance’s fingers sliding across the patches of his scales, it brought a certain kind of comfort that he wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced. And if this was the only time he ever got to, the only time a human was ever stupid enough to hug him, he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. 

“I’m sorry,” Lance said suddenly, shattering the silence that had fallen between them. “I read the records and I just assumed… I didn't even think about it. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Keith said, shaking his head a little. 

“Still, I… I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like,” Lance said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Did… Did we really…?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, huffing out a small, humorless laugh. “You really did.”

Lance let out a slow sigh and released Keith from the circle of his arms, pushing him away a little to bring his hands up and cup his cheeks. Keith’s heart was pounding in his chest, his cheeks threatening to pinken beneath Lance’s palms. “I’m sorry,” Lance said again, his eyes sad as he brushed his thumb along the crest of Keith’s cheekbone. He could tell that Lance wanted to say more, but they both knew there was nothing more to say. So Keith turned away and grabbed one of Lance’s hands as it fell, leading him from the mouth of his cave to the little spot they’d been building for themselves in the midst of gold mountains, a little more furnished and homely now than Keith’s lonely, dusty chairs had been weeks before. 

It was almost like a second nest for Keith at this point, especially considering how much time he spent there. The dusty chairs were still there, sat proudly around the edges where they’d been since day one, but Keith and Lance had both brought things to add since then. Lance had lugged up blankets and a few pillows from home that he swore his family wouldn’t miss, and stacked each new book he brought for Keith in the little space between their chairs so they’d be easy for him to find. Keith had donated some animal furs, a few articles of clothing he had no use for and the soft, down coat he’d found in the woods once, and had taken the time to arrange it all into a comfy little place for them to hang out in. 

He tried not to think of it as a nest, because then he’d have to think about the implications of  _ sharing _ a nest, and that was definitely something he didn't want to do, for a thousand different reasons. Not only was Lance a human, but he was a human that didn't understand the significance of dragon nests and what it meant to share them. He probably didn't even realize that Keith had  _ made _ them a nest, no matter how often Keith found himself thinking about it.

And gods, Keith was trying not to think about it, but it was an especially hard thing to do when they stepped into the not-nest and Lance immediately settled down beside him, much closer than the two of them had ever sat before. It felt like  _ proper _ nest sharing, the way his family always described it—warmth, unimaginable comfort, almost instantaneous ease of mind. It was frankly distracting, and it took everything Keith had to drag his attention away from the press of Lance along the entirety of his side and focus instead on—on Lance taking his hand again, rubbing his thumb over the scales of his knuckles.

Keith couldn’t breathe. What was happening? Why was Lance being so touchy all of the sudden? And more importantly, _why was it making Keith feel like_ _this?_

“This… might not be something you wanna answer,” Lance said, breaking the silence between them again. “And it’s okay if you don’t. I was just wondering, um… how are you still alive?”

Keith let out a slow breath, attention back on the conversation as he tipped his head back a little and thought of the best way to answer. He pretended not to notice when Lance scooted a little closer, one arm moving to wrap around his shoulders as the other kept its tight trip on his hand. 

“You mean how did I survive the war or how have I survived since then?”

“Both.”

Keith nodded, taking a deep breath. He hadn’t talked about the war since it happened, for obvious reasons, but he’d thought about it more times than he could count. Over and over again he’d played that moment in his head, visualizing all the things he could have done differently and crushed every time by the reality of what he  _ had  _ done—nothing. 

“I’m not sure how familiar with dragons you are,” Keith began, voice soft and vulnerable. “And I’m not sure how much those stories told you, or what they’re even about, really. But dragons are able to use a certain kind of magic, given to them centuries ago by the gods that created them. I’m not very familiar with dragon magic myself, because I had just started my studies of it when the war began, but my mother was considered one of the most skilled magic users in the entire clan. We can only use our magic to do so many things, of course, but one of the most common uses is for the purposes of transformation and disguise. That magic is the reason I can switch between my human and dragon forms. If I really wanted to, I could look completely human. My dragon features would still be there, of course, but my magic would hide them and make me appear human to anyone without the magic to see through my disguise.”

“So… you’ve used your magic to hide from the humans?” Lance asked, furrowing his brow. “Is that how you’ve survived?” 

“Not quite,” Keith said, shaking his head. “At the beginning of the war, the humans were still afraid. They’d killed a dragon before, yes, but it was young and weak and unprotected, and they weren’t sure if they could go up against any dragons that were stronger. But somehow, killing dragons was easy for them. They fell like trees beneath the human’s hands, and because of that, the humans became brave enough to not only kill the dragons that attacked them, but any one they could find. They began searching the mountains, seeking out dragon nests and killing the dragons inside, mostly females and younglings that had tried their best to stay out of the war. And so eventually, making their way up the mountain, the humans stumbled across  _ our _ nest. My father had already been killed in the start of the war, one of the first to go, actually. My mother had been protecting us since then, risking her life to go out at night and hunt for us, spending her days guarding the mouth of our cave to try and catch the humans by surprise if they ever came. And when they did come, the only thing she managed to do before they killed her was use her magic and disguise the entrance of the room where our nest was located, making it look like the surrounding rock face. But when she did that… my brothers didn’t stay inside the nest like I did. They went after the humans, tried to avenge her, and… now they’re dead, and I’m not.”

“...You know it’s not your fault, right?” Lance asked after a pause, tilting his head a little to lock eyes with him. “Your mother chose to save you, and your brothers chose to fight. It’s not your fault what happened to them, and it’s not your fault you made the decisions you did. Because if you hadn’t, then the dragons would be completely extinct.”

“I should have fought alongside them,” Keith said lowly, gritting his teeth. “And yeah, maybe I’d be dead now, but what’s the point of me being alive if I’m the  _ only one _ ?”

“Maybe you’re not the only dragon left in the world,” Lance said. “Maybe there’s other clans out there, spread out all over the place. You could go find them, you know? And then you wouldn’t be so lonely anymore.”

“And where would I start?” Keith asked. “Like you said, the world outside our little corner is so much bigger than either of us have any grasp of. What if I spend the rest of forever looking, and never find anything? What if there’s nothing to find?”

“Then you’d at least have the experience of getting to see the rest of the world,” Lance said, shrugging his shoulders. “That’s more than some of us will ever have.”

Keith didn't respond, sighing. Lance was right, of course. He just… couldn’t fathom it, leaving this place behind, leaving the past in the past and moving on to find something different, whether that be better or worse or more of the same. His entire life had been here, safe between the walls of his cavern, and he knew the world beyond likely wouldn’t be as kind to him. How was he meant to convince himself to leave the only home he’d ever known for the vast blankness of the outside world?

“That room you were talking about earlier,” Lance began after a few moments of silence had stretched between them. “Your old nest. Is it still disguised…?”

Keith nodded silently and pointed to the back corner of his cave, along the same wall as his new nest. “I haven’t been inside since they died.”

Lance was quiet again, letting out a slow breath as he clutched Keith’s hand tightly, almost as if he wasn’t aware he was doing it. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually, staring blankly at the cave wall. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“I’ve had a long time to accept it,” Keith said, attempting to shrug it off. Lance gave him a look but didn’t comment, doing his best to redirect the conversation a little.

“What about now? Why haven’t they come after you? Are you sure they actually know about you?”

“I’m sure,” Keith said, nodding. “Though I’m not sure why they’ve left me alone. They probably just don’t think I’m worth the effort, especially because I haven’t done anything to threaten them since the war.”

“But how are you sure?” Lance asked. “How do you know?”

“The stories you heard, for one,” Keith said. “Those wouldn’t exist if they didn’t know of me. But I also know because of what I did after the war ended.”

“...What did you do after the war ended?” Lance asked slowly.

“Nothing bad,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “Well—nothing  _ that _ bad. I just… flooded the human kingdom for a few days.”

“You… what?”

“Not even a full week. I couldn’t let it go on for that long. Just a few days.”

“How… did you do that?”

“Dragon magic,” Keith said, shrugging a little. “That’s what the dragons were created for, you know, to control the skies.”

“So you can, like… control the weather?” Lance asked, awed.

“Yeah. But in order to do that, I have to, um… sing,” Keith said, suddenly embarrassed. “There’s a different song for each kind of weather we want to see in the sky each day, and the more magic we have to use, the louder the song. So on a normal day, the human villages can’t hear anything when I sing. But if I were to, say, sing for a several-day-long torrential downpour to flood the human villages, it would be loud enough for the humans to hear. And I  _ know _ they heard. I just haven’t done anything on that large of a scale since.”

“So… every time it rains, it’s because of you?” Lance asked, looking as if he was struggling to wrap his mind around it.

“Yes. It’s, uh… kind of hard to explain. But I’m connected to the earth, in a way, and I can feel when it needs to be replenished.”

“So you only let it rain when the earth needs it?” Lance asked.

“Well, no. Sometimes the clouds ask for it before the earth needs it, and sometimes I just let it rain for fun.”

“So… you could make it rain right now…?”

“I don’t see why not,” Keith said, shrugging. Lance’s eyes lit up at his answer, an excited smile unfolding across his lips. He got up and used his grip on Keith’s hand to pull him up after him, leading them both to the mouth of the cave. He then turned to Keith expectantly, an unfamiliar twinkle in his eyes. 

“Go on, then. Make it rain, dragon boy.”

Keith flushed at the name and turned to the opening of his cave, looking up to the sky as he closed his eyes and began to sing. He’d never sung in his human form before, but it didn't feel as different as he thought it would. It still felt easy, natural, comforting to open himself up to the sky, letting a connection run between them as his song lulled them into action, the striking blue slowly clouded over as the first rain drops began to fall. Keith felt it more than saw it when Lance brushed past him to move outside, and when Keith’s song was over and he could hear the sound of raindrops splattering rhythmically against the earth, he opened his eyes to see Lance with his arms outstretched and his head tipped back, the most serene-looking smile on his face that Keith had ever seen. He turned in a slow circle, clothes and hair and skin slowly getting drenched by the rain. And it was cold, far too cold for Lance to be doing what he was doing, and Keith would have to pull him back into the cave soon and do all he could to regain Lance’s warmth, but he hesitated.

Something about seeing Lance so calm and untroubled, face tipped up to the very sky that Keith controlled, made something stir inside him. He didn't know what it was, couldn’t place the feeling, but he understood that it was telling him to wait. They’d have all the time in the world to get warm again, but for now… Keith could just stand and admire the way Lance looked with that smile on his face and that light in his eyes and those water droplets streaming along the line of his jaw and neck. And if Lance looked over at him after a moment, extended an arm to him and beckoned him out into the rain to join him, if Keith felt his legs stumbling to meet him before his mind fully made a decision, then what did it matter? 

What harm would a few more minutes do?


	5. and hide you in my treasure chest—winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There had never been any surprises to Lance’s visits.
> 
> Once Keith had gotten past the initial shock of the fact that they kept happening, they’d all been largely the same; Lance would show up bundled in the winter clothes he’d bought with Keith’s money, a bright smile on his face and a story on his lips that was already threatening to burst out before they’d even greeted each other.
> 
> But now the cold was on its way to slowly thawing and melting away, and although it was still cold at the top of Keith’s mountain, sometimes warmer days came around and Lance didn't need all the layers he’d worn before. He occasionally showed up with a single jacket pulled over his wide shoulders, and sometimes he even left it on the whole time he was there, claiming Keith’s cave was “chilly”. No one had ever called his cave chilly before, and Keith couldn’t for the life of him even begin to understand how Lance thought so. 
> 
> But no matter the minor differences that trailed behind them with the changes of the seasons, there had never been any surprises—until now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy late halloween/november first !! as you may have noticed i changed the chapter count from 7 to 9 bc i decided i wanted to write a few more scenes, which means i now have to actually do more writing which is a bit of a problem for me as the worlds largest procrastinator. hopefully ill be able to keep up with my once a week updates, and ill try my hardest, but im also very bust with school and unfortunately can't make any promises. but no matter what, this story should be wrapping up within the next month or so, which is exciting!! this chapter is about halfway through in terms of the scenes i have planned out, so the end is getting closer :)

There had never been any surprises to Lance’s visits.

Once Keith had gotten past the initial shock of the fact that they kept happening, they’d all been largely the same; Lance would show up bundled in the winter clothes he’d bought with Keith’s money, a bright smile on his face and a story on his lips that was already threatening to burst out before they’d even greeted each other.

But now the cold was on its way to slowly thawing and melting away, and although it was still cold at the top of Keith’s mountain, sometimes warmer days came around and Lance didn't need all the layers he’d worn before. He occasionally showed up with a single jacket pulled over his wide shoulders, and sometimes he even left it on the whole time he was there, claiming Keith’s cave was “chilly”. No one had ever called his cave chilly before, and Keith couldn’t for the life of him even begin to understand how Lance thought so. 

But no matter the minor differences that trailed behind them with the changes of the seasons, there had never been any  _ surprises— _ until now. 

Really, it was something so small that Keith shouldn’t have noticed. But he’d been living on edge for years at that point, training himself to pick up on the smallest of differences, knowing it could be the difference between life or death for him. So when he smelled Lance’s familiar scent on the breeze, wafting up from lower on the side of the mountain, it only took him a few seconds to notice the unfamiliar undercurrent that came along with it. 

Lance’s scent had been long since ingrained in his brain, something he could recognize in a second but still struggled to put words to. He smelled like the earth, like dirt and wind and flowers and trees and grass and rain, while also somehow smelling like something completely new, something Keith had never experienced and never could figure out how to describe. The word he always used in his head was just  _ Lance, _ and he figured that might be the best he ever got. 

But the scent that Lance carried with him now was something much harder to place, partially because while it was unfamiliar to him, it  _ wasn’t. _ He’d smelled something similar before, a million different times, but for some reason he couldn’t figure out what it was.

Keith met Lance at the mouth of his cave per usual, eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. “What’s that smell?” he asked as soon as Lance was close enough to hear him, scenting the air again as his tail lashed back and forth, unable to keep still. Gods, what  _ was _ that smell?

“I brought you a little surprise,” Lance said, trying to pass his shrug off as casual even though the smile on his face completely gave him away.

“What is it?” Keith asked, even more suspicious at that. He didn’t like surprises, not even a little bit. Even if he completely trusted the person they were coming from. 

“Well, just a little something,” Lance said, biting his lip to hold back his smile when it threatened to grow even larger, overtaking his face. “It’s almost spring time, you know, which means I won’t be able to visit as much.”

“Why not?” Keith asked, surprise momentarily forgotten as he frowned. What was he going to do with his time if Lance wasn’t here to spend it with him? He… couldn’t go back to being lonely like he’d been before. 

“I’ve gotta help my family,” Lance said, shrugging. “Mama’s gonna start making things like baked goods, jewelry, and clothes to sell at the markets in the morning, and my dad and brothers will need help out in the fields. It was easy enough to sneak away when we were starting the seeds inside the house, but now that we’re moving them out to the fields, they’ll need all the help they can get.”

Right. Keith had almost forgotten that Lance had a  _ life  _ outside of him, which made him feel even more pathetic. While they were apart, Lance would be working, earning money, growing food,  _ living, _ and Keith would be sitting, reading the books Lance had brought him, doing nothing more than  _ surviving.  _

“So,” Lance continued once Keith failed to respond, brushing over it so effortlessly it was as if it didn’t phase him (it probably didn’t). “Since I won’t be able to be here as much, I got you a little something. You gave me way,  _ way _ too much money for those clothes, so I used the leftovers to get something for you, too.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Keith said quietly, an unfamiliar feeling twisting in his chest. 

“I wanted to,” Lance said, brushing him off again. “Now, come on, let’s go inside and I’ll show you what I got.” With that, Lance invited himself into Keith’s cave, walking towards their not-nest the same way he’d done a million times before. Keith followed behind him automatically, feet moving on their own as his brain moved a million miles an hour. Something about the way it felt to see Lance so comfortable with him, so comfortable with his home ( _ their _ home, he didn’t think) was doing something strange to his hindbrain that he didn’t want to think about.

“I’ve smelled it before,” Keith said after a moment, shaking his head a little to clear it. Later, he’d deal with whatever this was  _ later. _

“Smelled what?” Lance asked, still leading their way.

“Your surprise,” Keith said, taking a deep breath. “It’s so, so familiar to me, but I can’t place it. It’s driving me crazy.”

Lance laughed softly, stepping into the circle of their not-nest and sitting down, patting the spot next to him as he settled his bag in his lap. Keith eyed the bag closely as he sat beside Lance, his suspicion rising once again. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was moving.

“What is that?” Keith asked, pointing to the now obviously wiggling lump in Lance’s bag. “What did you bring me?”

Lance let out a soft giggle and reached into his bag, pulling out the lump and placing it onto the ground between them. Keith hissed softly and recoiled, jumping away and using his wing to shield himself. “A  _ dog?” _

“Dog or wolf,” Lance said, shrugging a little. “The lady I bought it from wasn’t sure. Maybe both.”

That would explain why the smell was so familiar to him. He’d crossed paths with wolves a million times during his hunting trips, had often finished meals they’d killed and left behind. But he’d never had a true  _ interaction _ with one, and certainly didn’t know why there was now one in his nest. He stared at it over the arch of his wing, shoulders pulled in and hands pressed to his chest, as far away from the thing as he could get without properly moving. It stared back at him, it’s jaws opening momentarily as it gave a little yawn. 

“Why is it here? Why did you bring me a dog?”

“Wolf-dog,” Lance corrected. “We aren’t sure, remember? And  _ because,  _ I’m gonna be gone a lot more and I didn’t want you to be lonely. I wanted you to still have a friend.”

Keith suddenly remembered the human concept of pets that Lance had once explained to him and relaxed a little, settling back into the not-nest. So Lance had bought him a pet. It was… kind of really sweet, when he thought about it.

“Does… it have a name?” Keith asked, still not sure what to do with it. What did humans do with dogs?

“It’s not an  _ it,  _ it’s a he,” Lance said, scolding him. Keith gave him a bewildered look, clearing his throat as he corrected himself.

“Right, sorry. Does  _ he _ have a name?”

“The lady said his name was Pom-Pom,” Lance said, and Keith couldn’t have hidden his reaction to the information if he tried. 

_ “Pom-Pom?”  _ Keith asked, staring at Lance incredulously. “No, no way. If I’m keeping this thing, it’s  _ not _ going to be named Pom-Pom.”

“He!” Lance cried, smacking his arm. “Not it, he! And fine, if Pom-Pom is so horrible, what are you gonna name him instead, then?”

Keith paused at that, looking between them to the tiny ball of fluff that had curled up in the empty space between their thighs and appeared to be napping, tiny eyes closed tightly. “I’m gonna wait until he tells me what he wants to be called.”

Lance stared at him for a second, mouth open. “You can talk to animals?”

“What?” Keith asked, wrinkling his nose. “No! Well… kind of? Not really.”

“What do you mean, not really?” Lance asked. “You either can or you can’t!”

“It’s not like  _ talking,”  _ Keith said, pausing for a minute as he tried to find the words to explain. “It’s more like… sharing abstract thoughts.”

“How do you mean?” Lance asked curiously, tilting his head.

“Like… If I wanted to talk to an animal and tell it I was hungry, it would be like me projecting to them the  _ feeling _ of being hungry, rather than the words ‘I’m hungry.’ Does that make sense?”

“...I think so,” Lance said, nodding. “But how would that work for names? Do animals even give themselves names?” 

“Of course they do,” Keith said, nodding. “They’re nothing like human names, of course, and often when an animal shares their name with me it comes down to interpretation on my part, but they still have names.”

“Huh,” Lance said. “I never knew that. Do animals get offended when you give them new names?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Keith said, shrugging. “I’ve never met an animal that’s been named by a human before. But I don’t think they’d get offended, they know humans can’t understand them.” 

“That doesn’t mean they like being given a new name,” Lance pointed out.

“You’re right. I’ll ask him how he feels about the name Pom-Pom when he wakes up.”

“You do that,” Lance said, laughing softly.

“So…” Keith said after a pause, chewing on his bottom lip. “When you say you won’t be here as much, how much  _ will _ you be here?”

“I’m not sure,” Lance said, shrugging. “It’s a lot busier when we first get started, so I might be able to find more time once it slows down a little. But for now, I’ll probably only be able to make it up here a couple times a week, if not less.”

“Oh,” Keith said, unable to explain the ache in his chest that came along with hearing the words. “Okay. Well, I hope they don’t work you so hard you don’t have any time to see me at all. That would, um… that would suck.”

“Don’t worry,” Lance said, reaching out to grab his hand, squeezing softly. “I’ll always make time to come and see you, even if I have to sneak out in the middle of the night.”

Keith had the most absurd thought then, one that had never occurred to him so plainly in all the years he’d been alive. He looked at Lance—felt the way their hands fit together and the way his soft breath stirred the hair around Keith’s face and the way his chest felt, light and fluttery and tight—and thought that right then, he’d like to lean forward and kiss him. 

And it was strange, for so many reasons. Firstly, Keith had never kissed anybody before. Dragons didn’t really  _ do _ the whole kissing thing, mostly because no other dragon had spent as much time in their human form as Keith did in his. But the instinct was there, the urge to use his free hand to cup Lance’s cheek and pull him closer, press their lips together and let them tell Lance all the things Keith didn’t have the words to say. 

It was strange secondly because… Keith couldn’t just  _ do  _ that, could he? He didn’t know if Lance wanted that, didn’t know if Lance wanted to kiss him as a person or him as a boy or him as a  _ dragon,  _ for that matter. He couldn’t just…  _ kiss him. _ That would be absolutely absurd. 

So he didn’t. He sat and held Lance’s hand as tightly as Lance was holding his own, listened to him ramble on and on about whatever it was he was talking about and tried not to stare too hard at his lips, tried not to wonder how they would feel against his own, how they would taste. 

And when Lance eventually had to leave, his figure retreating down the slope of Keith’s mountain, Keith felt his absence like a physical ache. He missed him so much already, and he was suddenly incredibly grateful for Lance’s foresight. Because of course, it would be hard to deal with not getting to see Lance, to never know when he was coming and if he’d get to see his smiling face that day.

But now Keith had a tiny dog pup (wolf-dog pup, Keith heard the Lance in his mind correct) to act as his companion, one that not only kept him company but reminded him of Lance, made him see that blinding look of excitement Lance had worn the moment he’d given Keith his gift over and over again. 

The pup made his nest a million times warmer than it had been, and Keith found the presence of another living thing more comforting than he wanted to admit. It’d been  _ so long _ since he’d had something warm and alive to sleep in his nest with him, and he’d missed it. His nest smelled like himself and Lance and the pup Lance had gifted him, and Keith was finding it harder and harder to keep himself from referring to it as their little family.

And when Keith asked the pup his name, he projected back to Keith a dazzling field of stars, sprinkled atop a backdrop of darkness that seemed never ending, as vast as he could imagine it. So he named the pup Kosmo, the word most fitting for the scene he’d shown him. And if Keith still called him Pom-Pom sometimes because he thought it was absolutely adorable, then Lance didn’t have to know. 


	6. i don't know what to do—spring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you, immune to fire or something?” Lance asked incredulously, accepting the plate of meat from Keith’s hands when he offered it to him. Keith laughed again as he waved another piece at Kosmo, telling him to sit before tossing it to him, watching as he snapped it up with vigor.
> 
> “I guess you could call it that. But come on, Lance, haven’t you heard? Dragons are born from fire.”
> 
> Lance looked even more confused at this, if possible. “You mean, like… literally?”
> 
> Keith chuckled softly as he tended to the meat still cooking in the fire, making sure it didn’t cook too long as he tried to find the words to help Lance understand. “The way my ancestors told it, the Gods forged the first dragons from the dancing form of flames themselves. ‘Scales of burning embers, horns of hardened ash, eyes of laughing smoke’. That’s what they always said. And we’re each born with a fistful of fire in our hearts that spreads throughout our bodies as time goes by, until we grow enough to fan the flames with the release of our breath. And in that moment, we become the dragon our creators intended us to be. So tell me, silly human, how could the flames ever hurt me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter started out as a filler chapter to go over a little lore that will come into play later and include some more kosmo content but i may have,,, done something,,, that y'all have been waiting for

With the bite of winter finally behind them, Keith deemed the trip from the top of his mountain to the forests below finally safe enough for Kosmo. 

As many times as Lance had reassured him the little pup could make it, Keith wasn’t so sure. He’d gotten bigger in the time Keith had had him, so he wasn’t as much the tiny ball of fluff he’d been at first, but he certainly wasn’t big by any means. Keith was still wary about adopting his full dragon form around him, terrified both of scaring him off and squishing him flat. 

But it was warm enough now that Keith didn't have to worry about his tiny little body freezing to death on the way down, which meant that Keith could finally,  _ finally _ take Kosmo on a hunting trip.

Kosmo had been begging to tag along for ages now, clearly tired of the confines of Keith’s cave. He’d followed Keith to the mouth of the cave every time Keith had gone in the past, and Keith had been forced to promise to bring back a special treat for him every time, just to ensure he stayed put. But that didn't mean Kosmo hadn’t spent all his time whining at him, pacing back in front of the entrance of their cave. And it wasn’t that Keith didn't want to take him out and show him what there was to see, he was just worried about him being out in the cold for so long. 

And now, with the cold weather finally gone, there was nothing keeping Kosmo in the cave anymore, and he knew it. So Keith made them wait for nightfall before leading them both down the mountain, teaching Kosmo the ropes of a typical Keith hunting trip under the cover of night.

That first trip had been almost two weeks ago now, and Kosmo was learning well. In the beginning he’d been loud, clumsy, reckless. He’d helped scare away more prey than he’d helped catch, but Keith figured he couldn’t expect much more from a puppy. Besides, it wasn’t as if Keith was truly worried about it. If he needed to, the most he had to do in order to catch dinner for them was change forms and use his fire breath to roast his prey where it stood. But hunting the animals was so much more fun, especially in his human form. It was a challenge, firstly, which Keith had always enjoyed. But it made it more rewarding, as well, to catch the neck of an animal in the grip of his human-sized jaw, rather than his dragon mouth that was likely larger than the animal itself. 

So instead of changing forms and doing what Keith considered to be cheating, he taught Kosmo the tricks he’d learned himself years ago. Keith’s hunting techniques were self-taught, which he prided himself in quite a bit. He’d been considered too young to go hunting with the clan when they’d been alive, so he hadn’t had any sort of formal guidance to help him. And once he found himself all alone, he hadn’t had much of an option. It been trial and error, and he’d spent many nights going hungry when failure and stupid mistakes left him preyless, but he had learned. And now, it was time for him to teach Kosmo the same lessons, almost as if he were part of Keith’s clan.

Their first lesson had been in learning how to stay upwind. Scent could be carried a lot farther than sound or sight, meaning it could scare off prey before they even knew it was there. It also meant easier tracking, with the wind blowing various scents right to them. It had been fairly easy to teach Kosmo how to track scents, considering it seemed pretty instinctual for him. Teaching him how to keep quiet while tracking scents, however—slinking through the trees without making a sound rather than crashing through the foliage without a care for who heard—that had been much harder. 

Kosmo was prone to over-excitement, and as soon as he’d caught a scent, he’d been dashing towards it noisily before Keith could scold him and keep him quiet. It’d ended with a few too many mouthfuls of dirt and leaves for Kosmo’s liking, prompting him to finally follow Keith’s lead when he tracked prey slowly, following them through the leaves at a pace Kosmo clearly struggled to follow. 

But he was getting much better. Keith didn't have to hold the fur at the scruff of his neck anymore to keep him from pulling ahead, or hold the tip of his tail to keep it from wagging wildly and slapping into greenery. He was slowly but surely mastering the art of not giving away their position, which make their hunts more and more fruitful. 

The actual act of catching the prey was something Keith hadn’t needed to teach him at all. Something about being a natural predator made him good at it without much practice, even if his jaw was barely large enough to be very useful at all. Keith still did most of the actual killing, but Kosmo had caught himself quite a few mice and rats, and he couldn’t be prouder. 

Their current hunting trip found them crouched behind the trunk of a tree, watching a deer bow its head to eat in a clearing a few feet from them. Keith didn't often catch deer, mostly because they were one of the prettiest animals Keith had ever seen and it made him feel bad to kill them. He much preferred to watch them whenever he came across one, and admire the way they moved. They reminded him of his family in a way, with the quick, graceful way they moved—always on guard and ready to run, muscles rippling beneath the golden shine of their pelt. 

But the winter was over and it called for celebration, and Kosmo had been tracking the deer so flawlessly for the better part of an hour now, so Keith didn't have the heart to call him off of it. He wouldn’t be able to kill it, that was for sure, but Keith figured his good work was deserving of a reward. 

So Keith took a deep breath and urged Kosmo to follow along behind him as he dashed into the clearing, using his claws to slit a clean line along the base of the deer’s throat. He wasn’t usually so careful and precise when hunting, but something about deer made him want to be respectful, careful, not mar the pelt more than he needed to. It was a nice pelt, after all, golden brown and soft. It’d make a good gift for Lance. 

Keith tried not to flush at the thought, carefully draining the deer in the grass until the flow of blood had all but stopped, pulling it onto his back a moment later to start the trek back home, Kosmo trailing dutifully behind. True to his word, Lance had been gone more recently, and Keith had missed him more than ever, and he’d been eternally grateful to have Kosmo around to spend his time with. It seemed as if Lance knew Keith better than he knew himself sometimes, and he didn't know how to feel about it. After accepting his life of solitude all those years ago, it was strange to think of things turning out differently. And if things continued the way they were, Keith could easily spend the rest of Lance’s lifetime being happy, being not alone. But it wouldn’t last, because Keith would outlive Lance, and he’d outlive Kosmo, and there wouldn’t be any foolish humans or wolf-dog pups that wanted to spend their days in his cave after they were gone. 

But Keith already knew the bitter taste of loneliness, and even if he’d one day taste it again, wasn’t it better to allow himself to bask in the sweet taste of Lance’s presence? He wasn’t in the position to deny himself the simplest pleasures of life, no matter how fleeting they seemed with the expanse of his lifetime. He’d been completely blindsided by Lance’s first appearance in his life, so maybe one day, decades down the road, he’d be blindsided again. Maybe he’d take Lance’s advice and leave this place, search for somewhere in the big, wide universe that he could call home. 

No matter how unlikely either of those options seemed, they were nice to think about. They were a way to keep his mind occupied and away from the looming thought that everything he felt and experienced and treasured now would be gone before the turn of the century. He’d faced the crushing loneliness and the cruelness of time before, and he’d be ready when it came time to face it again. But for now, he didn’t have the heart to keep himself from enjoying the unlikely happiness that had found him holed away in his cave. 

His cave, which was already lit with the light of a fire as Keith and Kosmo closed in, finishing the final steps of their trek up the mountainside. Kosmo was panting harder than Keith, which he found amusing considering Kosmo hadn’t been the one of carry up the deer. But the amusement was fleeting under the weight of his sudden trepidation, approaching his home with caution, straining his ears to hear any noise from inside that could give clues as to who had decided to pay him a visit. 

And as he got closer, the tense cut of his shoulders slowly relaxed as much as they could with the weight of a deer draped across them, his steps falling heavier against the ground as he realized he didn’t have to try and hide his approach. Because from inside his cave Keith could hear the sound of Lance’s soft humming, and although he was confused as to why Lance had decided to visit him so late at night, something he’d never before done, he knew he didn’t have to be afraid. 

Lance was already sending a beaming smile in Keith’s direction as he entered the cave, moving to where Lance was settled beside the fire and letting the deer drop to the floor with a muted thud, huffing out a breath as he stretched out his shoulders and wings, groaning softly. Lance seemed to be watching him but looked away as soon as Keith finished and dropped to the cave floor beside him, flicking his tail out beside him and crossing his legs.

“Did you just come back from a hunt?” Lance asked, reaching out to ruffle his fingers through Kosmo’s wind-blown fur. The moon smelled nice on Kosmo, and the happy, care-free way he pranced around after coming back in made Keith realize he’d almost forgotten how to appreciate the forest as more than just a source of food. He hadn’t been allowed to frolick within the world outside his cave for quite sometime now, but the light in Kosmo’s eyes told him that he was determined to remind him what it was like, even if it couldn’t be to the same scale as before. And it made Keith’s heart swell, made his chest fill with overwhelmingly unfamiliar feelings as he looked back to Lance and nodded, a soft smile gracing his lips. 

“Yeah.”

“How did it go?” Lance asked, tilting his head curiously as Keith grabbed the carcass of the deer and pulled it closer to him, using his claw to carve carefully along the hide and peel it off. He got it up to drape it over a rock to dry before returning to the now mostly skinned body, once again utilizing his claws as he began to gut it. 

“It went well. Kosmo is learning quickly. He might be even better than me one day, if he keeps improving at the rate he is.” 

“One day he’ll be big enough to take down anything he pleases, I just know it,” Lance said, scratching encouragingly behind the bases of Kosmo’s ears. Kosmo whined happily at the attention, settling down next to Lance and shoving his head in his lap. He knew better than to poke his nose at the food while Keith was preparing it, so he settled for staring at it longingly from afar, licking his lips occasionally as if Keith needed reminding of how excited he was to eat some. 

“What’re you doing here?” Keith asked distractedly as he worked, realizing for the first time that Lance might have been grossed out by the sight. He moved until he had his back turned to Lance, blocking the body from his view as he quickened his pace, trying to make quick work of it. 

“Visiting you, of course.” Lance said, scoffing softly. “What else would I be doing here?”

Keith sighed fondly and shook his head, a small smile on his lips as he began carving the deer meat into more usable sections. “I  _ meant, _ what are you doing here so late? You never come after dark.” 

“It’s been almost three weeks, Keith,” Lance said with an exasperated sigh, as if his question had been a stupid one. “I haven’t gotten to see you in almost three weeks! I had to come, and it just so happened that after dark was the best time for me to get away.” 

“Aren’t you going to be tired tomorrow?” Keith asked, furrowing his brow in concern as he finished up his task and moved to the fire, setting several chunks of meat inside. 

“Perhaps,” Lance said, shrugging. “But it’s more than worth it.”

Keith turned away from Lance and began gathering the bits of the deer he wasn’t going to use, knowing the other animals in the forest would want what he didn’t. He took them back out of the cave and set them far away enough from the mouth that he wouldn’t get any other unexpected visitors, giving himself time to calm the raging flutter of his heart that had started up after Lance’s words. Lance was incredibly selfless, which was something Keith knew well. But it was a different thing entirely each time that selflessness was directed at him, each time Keith witnessed firsthand Lance making an effort to spend time with him. 

Keith hoped his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt as he reentered the cave, finding Lance still lounging beside the fire, watching the slow sizzle of the deer meat as it cooked in the flames. He looked so beautiful like this, the firelight dancing across his features and illuminating the beautiful blue of his eyes, making him look powerful and godlike, untouchable even to a being like Keith. 

“Will you eat with us?” Keith asked suddenly, voice competing with the sound of crackling flames as he retook his seat beside Lance, settling perhaps a little closer than he had the time before. Lance had never once accepted the food Keith had offered him over the course of his many visits, and it had never ceased to bother some primal, instinctual part of him that was buried inside. Because accepting food from a possible mate was an integral part of any dragon courting, and it was impossible to deny that Keith had started to see Lance as an object of his affections that he was pining hopelessly after. And even if Lance didn’t know what it meant, didn’t know how loudly Keith’s hindbrain was growling at him to court Lance properly and claim him before anyone else got there first, Keith was desperate to have this—to feel that much closer to him, to fall asleep with the knowledge that Lance had finally, finally accepted a meal from him. 

“You ask me that almost every time I come,” Lance pointed out, looking over to grin at him. “Does it really mean that much to you?” When Keith didn’t answer, only turned his head so he was staring into the source of the flames rather than their reflection in Lance’s eyes, Lance’s smile fell and he nodded, reaching out to take up Keith’s hand and squeeze it. “Yeah, yeah, of course I’ll eat with you, Keith.” The tension in Keith’s shoulders relaxed at his agreement, Keith offering him a small nod in answer as he watched the deer meat cook slowly. 

It was mostly quiet after that, the silence comfortable as Keith tended to the meat, flipping it over and pushing it into better areas of the coals every once in a while when it needed it. Before long, there was enough meat done for the three of them to begin eating, so Keith shuffled forward and began reaching into the fire to retrieve it, only stopping at the sound of Lance’s sharp gasp. 

“What are you doing?” Lance asked, looking horrified as Keith turned to look at him over shoulder. 

“Taking out the meat?” Keith said, raising his eyebrow at Lance. “It’ll burn if I leave it in too much longer.”

“You’re going to hurt yourself!” Lance shrieked, understanding falling over Keith all at once as he watched his reaction. “Get a stick or something!”

Keith couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head fondly as he turned back to his task, fishing three pieces of meat from the coals of the fire without so much of a flinch. Lance was clearly a mix of horrified, awed, and confused by this action, staring at Keith with his jaw dropped as he set the meat on the closest thing he had to human plates, which consisted simply of animal hide bound across a rough circle of lashed sticks—crafted many months ago with Lance in mind but never once used by him, much to Keith’s dismay. 

“What are you, immune to fire or something?” Lance asked incredulously, accepting the plate of meat from Keith’s hands when he offered it to him. Keith laughed again as he waved another piece at Kosmo, telling him to sit before tossing it to him, watching as he snapped it up with vigor.

“I guess you could call it that. But come on, Lance, haven’t you heard? Dragons are born from fire.”

Lance looked even more confused at this, if possible. “You mean, like… literally?”

Keith chuckled softly as he tended to the meat still cooking in the fire, making sure it didn’t cook too long as he tried to find the words to help Lance understand. “The way my ancestors told it, the Gods forged the first dragons from the dancing form of flames themselves. ‘Scales of burning embers, horns of hardened ash, eyes of laughing smoke’. That’s what they always said. And we’re each born with a fistful of fire in our hearts that spreads throughout our bodies as time goes by, until we grow enough to fan the flames with the release of our breath. And in that moment, we become the dragon our creators intended us to be. So tell me, silly human, how could the flames ever hurt me?” 

“Is every dragon that color, then?” Lance asked, head tilted curiously. “You know, all deep, dark red and dangerous looking?”

“Everyone in my clan was,” Keith told him, nodding. “There were variations, of course, younglings that came out closer to yellow or orange and younglings that came out so dark they almost looked black. But none of them looked as if they didn’t belong to the flames.” 

“That’s so cool,” Lance breathed out, a brilliant grin stretched across his lips when Keith looked over at him. Keith couldn’t help but smile back, removing a few more pieces of meat from the flames before sitting back, leaning on his arms. 

“The story of our origin was something that the ancestors were incredibly proud of, you know,” he said, tilting his head to rest against his shoulder, staring into space above Lance’s head as he let himself remember. “It was a thing of the highest honor, the knowledge that we’d been created by the Gods themselves. The rest of the universe had been crafted more distantly, like a plan put in action by millions of unbound souls that ranked much lower than the Gods. But they looked at the world they had created and they decided they had made a mistake in not including us, and it was something my ancestors vowed to never forget.”

“How did your ancestors know all this?” Lance asked, seeming to register a second too late how the question could come across. “I mean,” he added quickly, holding up his hands innocently as he met Keith’s eyes, “I’m not doubting them or anything. Just, the humans don’t know much about the origins of the world or how they got here. At least, they don’t know much for certain. There are people who speculate, of course, but almost nobody agrees. There have been countless wars over it, two sides always trying to prove that their theory is the correct one. I guess it’d just be nice to know for sure.”

Keith gave a thoughtful hum, moving the final pieces out of the fire before moving back to sit beside Lance, taking a bite of his meal and swallowing before answering. “Are you sure you want me to answer that? That’d require quite a bit of a history lesson.”

Lance nodded quickly, setting aside his empty plate and turning eagerly towards Keith, giving him his undivided attention. Keith preened silently at Lance’s enthusiasm and the sight of his meal finished, pleasant warmth rolling through him as he recalled the stories he’d been told over and over again, ever since he was a youngling. “Alright. Well, the very first dragons, the ones we call The Chosen, were alive when the world first began. They lived very closely with the other creatures that roamed both the lands and the skies, and worked tirelessly to create a harmony with them. The Gods, still enamored with this world they’d created and not yet overwhelmed by the mass of it, came down from the heavens to visit from time to time. They told story after story of the time they’d spent thinking, designing, building, wove the most intricate tales of life in the heavens, the power they felt having the ability to create life, and the plans they had for the future. And the creatures of the world wrote every one of them down, captured them all in scribe after scribe that were kept in underground archives and shared among the creatures of the world. 

‘But eventually the world as they knew it began to grow, and the creatures began to separate and create worlds and cities of their own, and the past was forgotten in favor of the future. Conflicts began to arise, particularly between the dragons and the humans, although none were to the scale of the most recent. The humans were upset because the dragons had learned how to use their illusion magic to make themselves appear human, and were using their newfound power to trick the humans and play pranks on them, laughing at and making clear the difference in superiority between them. And the dragons were divided amongst themselves, because many of them felt as if taking human form was an insult to the gods that had created them and given them their abilities, the very thing that gave them power over the humans. The conflict lasted for a long time, before they eventually agreed that dragons would take human form only when absolutely necessary, and the humans and dragons would only allow interaction between their kind for business purposes, such as the deal I told you about before, where they agreed to exchange favorable weather for human gold. 

“And in the finalization of the agreement, the human and dragon leaders gathered together and divided up the scrolls that told the stories of the old times, each storing their share in their own archive, in what was considered to be their territory. It wasn’t a complete recount of their past for either side, but it was something highly treasured, respected, and protected among them both. I used to study those scrolls, alongside the younglings the same age as me, and that’s where I learned all of this. And now I have no choice but to remember, because the humans raided the archive and took back the rest of the scrolls when the war was over.” Keith laughed a little at the awestruck look on Lance’s face, taking another bite of his meat before making a short attempt to answer Lance’s question more directly. “So, to make a long story short, my ancestors knew because the Gods told them. Why your people don’t know the same thing? I have no idea. They already possess all the information they need.”

“I’ve never heard of these scrolls before,” Lance said after a moment of silent contemplation, brow furrowing. “I’ve never heard anyone mention a thing like that. I didn’t even see mention of it in the royal archives when I was researching the human dragon war. Why would they bother hiding something like that, especially after they reclaimed the rest of the collection?”

“What can I say,” Keith said, shrugging casually as he tore into his meat, starving after waiting to tell his story. “Humans are strange creatures. I haven’t understood a thing you’ve done since the early times.” 

Lance huffed and swiped a hand at him, but the smile on his face told Keith he hadn’t taken it to heart. “I guess I can’t argue with that. Now, will you tell me something else about dragon culture? I don’t have very much to go on and there’s something I’m dying to know.”

“Um… sure,” Keith said, finishing the rest of his meal in one bite and sitting back again as he chewed, regarding Lance cautiously. “What is it you want to know?” 

“Are all dragons as… I don’t know,  _ nurturing _ as you are?” Lance asked, the curiosity clear in his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Keith asked, brow creasing in confusion.

“Well, I don’t know,” Lance said again, shrugging and looking a little unsure of himself. “You just do all these little sweet, thoughtful things. Like you’re mothering me, or something. You do it to Kosmo, too. And I was just wondering if it was, like, a dragon thing, or a you thing.”

“Do you have, ah… any examples?” Keith asked, a feeling of dread rising within him slowly. He had a feeling he knew exactly what Lance was referring to. 

“The money you gave me, for one. You were all… protective and snappy about it the first time, and then you handed a ton of it over without a word immediately after,” Lance began, scraping his teeth over his bottom lip as he thought. “And you made us that, I don’t know what to call it. Nest, I guess? The little place where we hang out most days? And you put a shit ton of work into it, from what I can tell, just for me and my however-long visits. And you always tried to get me as warm as possible in the winter, and try to get me to eat with you, everytime I come, like you’re worried about me starving to death or something.” 

“Right,” Keith said, hoping the panic wouldn’t show on his face as he tried to figure out how to address this. He certainly couldn’t deny doing any of those things, but he had no idea that Lance had noticed. And now he was giving Keith the perfect opportunity to play it off and pretend as if it were simply a dragon thing, something he couldn’t help but do, something he would’ve done for anyone. And while that was partially true, he knew it wasn’t  _ just _ because he was a dragon and it was in his blood. It was because he liked Lance, and he wanted to care for him, and some part of him ached at the thought of not telling Lance just how special he was to him. “I guess the answer is both…?”

“What do you mean?” Lance pressed gently, his voice soft as if he could tell how uncomfortable Keith was with the topic. 

“I mean… I do those things mostly because I’m a dragon, but because they’ve been triggered by something  _ I’ve _ done. Kind of.” Keith knew the answer was extremely lacking, but he was starting to regret his decision to tell the truth. He couldn’t just tell Lance! It could ruin everything! He had no idea how Lance felt about him, how Lance was going to react to the truth, and yet he was going to tell him anyway. And he had to, now, because it was far too late to go back. He was such an idiot.

“Keith,” Lance said, shaking his head with a small laugh. “That didn’t really make it any more clear.” 

“Those things are all… dragon instincts,” Keith told him, looking away in embarrassment as his cheeks flushed, probably bright red and obvious. “But I do them to you, and Kosmo, because, uh… my brain sees you both as part of my family, members of my clan. And for you, specifically, um… as a potential mate.”

Lance didn't say anything for a minute, and when Keith gathered the courage to look over at him, his eyes immediately caught on the look on Lance’s face, the grin on his lips that was just soft and awed enough to convince him that Lance wasn’t laughing at him, or making fun of him, or thinking anything negative about him at all. He almost looked… hopeful, like he was waiting for Keith to elaborate and tell him something he desperately wanted to hear. 

“A potential mate, huh?” Lance said after a while, breaking the tentative silence that had settled between them. It was obvious he’d tried to pitch his voice so that it sounded teasing and light, but Keith could hear how much his answer would mean to him. 

“Yeah. I know it’s probably kind of weird. If I’m not mistaken, humans don’t mate the same way dragons do, so… we can ignore it, if you want.”

Lance’s reaction to his confession was immediate, his eyes widening as he scooted closer to Keith, shaking his head as he brought them knee-to-knee. “I don’t—I don’t want to do that.”

“You don’t?” Keith asked, eyes widening in surprise. It was one thing to think he could see it in Lance’s face, to hope he could hear it in Lance’s voice, but it was another thing entirely for Lance to just… come out and tell him. 

“No. I, um… you’re right that dragons and humans mate differently. We definitely don’t do things the same way,” Lance said, hands reaching out seemingly subconsciously to play with Keiht’s fingers. “But… that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do them, you know? Whether it’s the dragon way or the human way, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Keith was struggling to wrap his head around what he was hearing, letting Lance tug his fingers around as he opened and closed his mouth several times, furrowing his brow. “So you’re saying that you… you want to be my mate?”

“If being your mate means that I get to kiss you, then yes. I would really like to be your mate, right this second.” 

And Keith didn't really know how to kiss, had never had a reason to learn, but Lance barely waited for his nod before he was pressing their lips together for him, bringing a hand up to cup his cheek as their lips moved together. It was strange, and unfamiliar, but it was absolutely wonderful, and Keith found that he never, ever wanted to stop. Lance’s lips were soft and his mouth was warm, and his fingers were gentle as they stroked over Keith’s cheeks, tilting his head the way Lance wanted as they broke apart and came back together time and time and time again. Keith was starting to feel a bit breathless, warmth blooming across his skin the longer they spent trading kisses back and forth. 

Lance eventually pulled away and Keith kept himself from making a disappointed noise, his eyes fluttering open (when had he closed them?) to take in Lance’s flushed cheeks and pink, bitten lips, illuminated brightly by the flames. He was so, so beautiful, and now Keith didn't have to worry about what Lance would do if he tried to kiss him. He was just… allowed to do it. 

“Your teeth are sharp,” Lance commented with a breathless giggle, eyes bright as he kept stroking over Keith’s cheeks.

“Sorry,” Keith mumbled, running his tongue over his teeth reflexively. 

“Don’t apologize,” Lance told him, rolling his eyes playfully. “I’ve just got to get used to them. And trust me, I definitely plan to get used to them.” 

Keith blushed brightly at that, ignoring Lance’s coo as he reached out and balled his fist in Lance’s shirt, pulling him in again. If Lance was going to get used to them, there was no time like the present.


	7. to do with your kiss on my neck—spring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That was a problem for his rational brain, however. His heat-riddled hindbrain could think of nothing but Lance during the few times he’d been forced to take care of himself, when the heat became overwhelming and he couldn’t focus on anything else. And against his will, out of his control, his brain had conjured up images of warm, smooth, brown skin; bright, piercing blue eyes; soft, plush lips and a smile that stole the breath straight from Keith’s lungs. He’d thought of long, delicate fingers, broad palms, hands that knew their way around and knew how to give Keith exactly what he needed. And he’d been ashamed, afterwards, when the heat had receded for the time being and his head had cleared. (Kosmo wandering over to check on him because he was so worried by the noises he was making didn’t help that shame in the slightest). But he didn’t regret it, not really. He just wished he’d ever be able to ask for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> firstly i would like to apologize for this chapter being literally more than two times longer than any other chapter i've uploaded up to this point. secondly you're fucking welcome, its long bc smut time is finally here

As unbearable as Lance’s more frequent absences had been before, they were a million times worse now. 

The transition from seeing Lance daily to once a week if he was lucky had already been an excruciating one, but now it felt as if time was passing impossibly slower, and there was the added bonus of Keith’s constant worry that he had somehow moved too fast and scared Lance away, and he wasn’t absent because of work but rather because he didn’t want to come back.

Keith hadn’t seen him since the night they’d kissed, and while the rational part of his brain knew why that was, he couldn’t help but worry. And as if that wasn’t enough to have on his mind each day, the change of the seasons had helped make him starkly aware of his body and its needs, and just how different from humans dragons really were. It wasn’t as if Keith had any kind of extensive knowledge of human anatomy or reproductive habits, but he knew enough to know that it was an area in which many differences could be found. Which made sense, he supposed, taking into account the already numerous visible differences between humans and dragons, especially when Keith was outside of his human form. But it sure as hell didn’t make him feel any better, or help ease his nerves over Lance showing up on the wrong day at the wrong time. 

The main problem wasn’t that Keith was embarrassed by it, or even ashamed. There was no way Keith could go the rest of their time together hiding it, no matter how much he wanted to or how much easier it would be. It was more that this romance they had between them was still so new, such incredibly uncharted territory for both of them in at least a few respects, and he didn’t want this to ruin it. However new, the relationship he had with Lance was a very, very good thing, and the last thing he wanted was something coming in the way of it. Something like his body’s intense, aching need to mate with the closet being of even the slightest biological compatibility (which, yes, did include humans. His body was very aware). 

Keith had struggled through this on his own, every year he’d been alive. He’d never once taken on a mate during mating season, something considered normal and respectable for dragons without a serious mate. With consideration to a dragon’s lifespan, there wasn’t much pressure or rush for reproduction. Many mated pairs didn’t have younglings even once settled into long, committed relationships and safe nests. There simply wasn’t much need for it, especially when dragons took lifelong mates, and casually mating usually ended in lifelong unhappiness. 

But despite this, despite the complete lack of need for biological encouragement to create offspring, Keith’s body had a complete meltdown once a year every spring, acting as if life couldn’t possibly go on if he didn’t get fucked. It was a bit dramatic, really, hands down his least part of being a dragon. But there wasn’t anything he could do about it, besides stick it out as he’d always done.

It was especially bad now that all he could think about was Lance. As far as his body was concerned, he now  _ had _ a mate, and he was still refusing to do anything about it. And it wasn’t like Keith  _ didn’t _ dream about slowly but surely rebuilding his clan, Lance at his side and playing an integral role in the process (Lance’s human lifespan and the complete unknown that was human dragon hybrids didn’t make an appearance in these dreams), but he knew he was getting a little ahead of himself. They’d done nothing more than kiss a few times, hadn’t even really had a conversation about what that meant for them. They absolutely weren’t ready for younglings, or a bond mark that would tie them together for as long as they both lived. 

So he stayed at home and worried each day that Lance would come, see him looking so desperate and out of control, and be scared away. Keith didn’t want Lance to see him like this—flushed cheeks, wide eyes, elevated heartbeat that wouldn’t go down no matter how many deep breaths Keith took. He didn’t want Lance to know how little control he had over his body, over its urges—and he especially didn’t want Lance to be scared away, to think that… that Keith  _ wanted _ his help with it.

Because Keith wasn’t sure he’d be able to deny it if Lance asked. 

He knew it was crazy, knew he was thinking far too many steps in the future, but he couldn’t help it when he was like this. He knew that mating held much less significance to humans, and they were making offspring so fast that the human kingdoms were growing and spreading across the land, taking up more and more. He didn’t want Lance to think that this was like that, didn't want him to think that if he came and they mated that Keith would be able to let go of him and get over it if something went wrong. Because dragons formed intense emotional connections with their mates, strong enough to make Keith sick if something were to happen to Lance that would sever their bond, so Keith wanted to be sure. And a few kisses and a poor excuse for a conversation weren’t enough to have him feeling very confident. 

That was a problem for his rational brain, however. His heat-riddled hindbrain could think of nothing but Lance during the few times he’d been forced to take care of himself, when the heat became overwhelming and he couldn’t focus on anything else. And against his will, out of his control, his brain had conjured up images of warm, smooth, brown skin; bright, piercing blue eyes; soft, plush lips and a smile that stole the breath straight from Keith’s lungs. He’d thought of long, delicate fingers, broad palms, hands that knew their way around and knew how to give Keith exactly what he needed. And he’d been ashamed, afterwards, when the heat had receded for the time being and his head had cleared. (Kosmo wandering over to check on him because he was so worried by the noises he was making didn’t help that shame in the slightest). But he didn’t  _ regret _ it, not really. He just wished he’d ever be able to  _ ask _ for it.

He missed Lance, missed his smile and his skin and the soothing timbre of his voice, and he couldn’t help it every time his mind slipped, dreaming of those warm hands discovering the secrets of his body. So he just hoped and prayed Lance wouldn’t come until he could figure this out, until he could get it under control. Because he didn’t want to face him like this, didn’t want to face the consequences that would surely come from the inevitable exposure of his secret. He didn’t want Lance to  _ leave  _ him, because he’d just remembered what it felt like to have someone again and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle losing it a second time. 

But he knew Lance wouldn’t stay away forever (and Keith didn't want him to), so he couldn’t find it in him to be too surprised when Kosmo let out a sharp bark, bolting up and running to the mouth of the cave in the same way he did whenever Lance was on his way. He stayed in his nest instead of getting up to meet Lance the way he normally did, taking deep breaths. It wasn’t as if it really affected him that much. Maybe he could pass himself off as normal, maybe Lance wouldn’t even notice. It didn't matter that Keith would still know, didn't matter that Lance just so happened to show up on a well-known dragon holiday—one meant to celebrate the spring season and the younglings it brought with it. It didn't matter that Keith was absolutely dying to know what Lance would look like, sound like, _ taste _ like all spread out beneath him. It didn't  _ matter. _ Lance was here now, and he couldn’t know. He couldn’t know, at least not yet. 

“Keith?” Lance’s voice echoed off the walls of his cave, making him flinch. Right. He needed to get up. He sat up a little and turned around, eyes searching for barely a second before they found Lance and locked onto him. The immediate curl of heat in his gut that came at the sight of him was probably a very bad sign, but Keith ignored it. It was better if Lance didn't know. 

He watched as Lance made his way across the cavern towards him, his features twisted in concern. “Hey, Keith, are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Keith said quickly, nodding. “Yeah. I was just… sleeping.”

“In the middle of the day?” Lance asked, coming to a stop beside his nest. Lance had never been this close to his nest before, and it made Keith’s heart race, his thoughts threatening to spiral out of control again. 

“Yeah,” Keith said again, giving a brief tip of his head as he eyed Lance down, unable to pull his gaze away. Lance frowned at him and reached out to touch his hands to his face, pressing them against his forehead, his cheeks. 

“You’re warm, Keith,” Lance said, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth in a way that sent Keith reeling, breath hitching in his chest. Maybe he couldn’t do this, after all. “Are you sick?”

“No,” Keith said, shaking his head. “I’m not sick. I feel fine.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Lance said, his voice low enough to vibrate through Keith’s chest. “You’re not fine. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Keith said, hoping he didn't sound as breathless as he felt. He needed Lance to back up, to give him space, or Keith wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself from doing something he absolutely shouldn’t do. “I promise it’s nothing.”

“Keith,” Lance said before doing the absolutely unthinkable and  _ climbing into Keith’s nest with him.  _ “C’mon. Don’t do that. How are we supposed to be together and make this work if you won’t talk to me? I’m just worried about you. You’re burning up and your pupils are dilated and you.. you kinda smell different. So what’s going on with you? I know it’s not nothing.”

Keith shuddered, staring hard at the ceiling of his cave and avoiding Lance the best he could, ignoring the urge inside him that begged him to get closer, to reach out and touch. “It’s, um… today is a holiday.”

“A holiday?” Lance asked, tilting his head. “What kind of holiday?”

“A spring holiday,” Keith said, giving a small shrug. “It’s used to celebrate, you know. Birth, and new life. Spring things.”

“Oh,” Lance said, sounding a bit disappointed. “That doesn't really answer any of my questions.”

Keith let out a soft sigh, biting his lip. He really didn't want to be having this conversation, really just wished Lance would drop it and leave it alone. “It’s spring, Lance.”

“So?” Lance asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“And I’m—I’m not a human, Lance.”

Lance let out a frustrated noise, giving Keith a look. “Yes, thank you. I  _ know _ that.”

Keith let out a noise of his own, pinching the bridge of his nose. He absolutely was not about to come out and say it. No way. If Lance didn't get it, that was his fault. “I’m  _ not human. _ I’m more  _ animal _ than  _ human, _ and it’s  _ spring.” _

Keith stared at Lance until something seemed to click in his brain, and he looked at Keith with a startled expression. “Oh.  _ Oh.” _

“Yes,” Keith said, huffing softly. “So, like I said before, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“I, um…” Lance said, his cheeks as pink as Keith knew his own probably were. “Yeah, okay. I’ll just, um… do that.”

Keith huffed again, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away in embarrassment. He didn't fucking want this to happen. “This isn’t going to be weird, is it? If it is, you don’t have to stay. You can stay away until this is over. You can stay away forever, if you really want.”

“No, no, no,” Lance said, shaking his head quickly. “That’s not what I want. And I don’t mind staying, either. I’ve missed you. I just… didn't expect this.”

“Sorry,” Keith muttered, biting his lip. “I should’ve warned you last time you were here. I guess I was just… kind of hoping it wouldn’t happen.”

“It’s like… a heat, right? Like what female dogs have?” Lance asked, looking as embarrassed to ask the question as Keith was to hear it. 

“Kind of,” Keith said, blowing out a breath. “Only for dragons it’s normally longer, less intense. It could potentially last all season, if the conditions are right. But mine have never lasted that long, and they’ve been much shorter since the war. They normally last a week or two at most.”

“And… what do you do? Like… what happens?”

Keith closed his eyes briefly, cursing whatever force had put him in this position, this situation. This was a conversation he  _ never  _ wanted to have with  _ anyone, _ let alone with  _ Lance.  _ “In an ideal situation, I would take on a mate. But since there are no dragons left for me to mate with, I normally just… do my best to ignore them.” He figured there was no point in telling Lance that he could mate with humans as well unless Lance specifically asked. Which Keith didn't think he was going to do. 

“You can do that?” Lance asked. “Ignore them, I mean?”

“Sure,” Keith said, shrugging. “It’s just like ignoring any other sign your body gives you, like not eating when you’re hungry, not sleeping when you’re tired, not drinking when you’re thirsty. It’s not convenient, of course, like… it doesn't feel great. But it’s not  _ impossible.” _

“So you just… carry on like nothing’s different?” Lance asked, and if Keith wasn’t mistaken his eyes had gone a shade darker than they were before, bright blue clouded by shadow. Keith swallowed and nodded, clearing his throat. 

“I mean, yeah. Sometimes I, um… take care of myself, when I really need to. But not very often. Usually I just pretend it’s not there.” Keith didn't miss the way Lance licked his lips, couldn’t mistake the way his eyes were trailing slowly along Keith’s form, taking it in hungrily. It made him shiver, urged him to watch closely; this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t one he could complain about.

“Well, then,” Lance said after a moment too long, his eyes flicking back up to Keith’s face. “I’ll do that, too. I’ll ignore it.”

Keith couldn’t help the disappointment that flooded through him at the words, barely holding back the noise of complaint that threatened to escape his throat. He didn't  _ want _ Lance to ignore it. He wanted him to  _ do _ something about it, make Keith feel better, make the heat go away. But that wasn’t something Keith could ask of him, wasn’t something he could  _ expect _ from him, and the deeply buried, rational part of his brain knew that. So he nodded, taking a deep breath and pushing it all down, out of his head. “Okay. What do you want to do, then?”

“Well, I did have this one story I wanted to tell you,” Lance said, smiling at him. “The other day, when I was out helping my brother in the field…” 

Keith paid attention to his story for a while, nodding along and responding at all the right parts. But the longer Lance talked the harder it was to focus on the things he was saying rather than the tone of his voice and the lilt of his words as they rolled off his tongue, the shape of his lips as the formed them. The longer he talked the more Keith’s mind wandered, imagining all the other uses for that voice, that tongue, those lips. He kept pinching himself, shaking his head, attempting to ward it off and shove it down where it couldn’t affect or control him. But he could feel the heat radiating off of Lance despite the small gap of space between them and he could smell his sweet, honey-nature scent as it permeated his nest, and he really,  _ really _ couldn’t help himself. 

Dragons had always been ones to mate with others they knew well, so he wasn’t surprised he wanted Lance to be his so badly. Not only was Lance the only person Keith had talked to for at least fifty years, but Keith could also say with confidence that he knew Lance and Lance knew him better than any of the dragons he’d had around before. Humans didn't take a single mate the way dragons did, but Keith’s brain didn't seem to care, making him ache for Lance to claim him and spend the rest of his life by his side. 

And he knew it was crazy. He’d done nothing the past few days but think about how absolutely  _ insane _ it was to think it could ever happen. It didn't matter how Keith felt, didn't matter what Keith wanted, didn't matter what Lance told him. Lance was a human, and he deserved a human partner that could live and die with him; Keith had no right to try and interfere with that. His loneliness wasn’t Lance’s problem.

But Keith couldn’t help but be selfish, couldn’t help but dream about it. What if Lance really wanted Keith the way Keith wanted him? What if all the times Keith had thought about kissing Lance, Lance had thought about kissing him back, and their last visit hadn’t been some one time thing? What if all the warm, unfamiliar feelings in Keith’s chest were swirling around in Lance’s, too? What if Keith didn't have to spend his life alone?

He barely noticed when warm hands scooped him up from his place in the nest and pulled him closer, settling him in Lance’s lap. The heat in Keith’s veins made his head cloudy, hazy, full of smoke, but it cleared faster than Keith could blink when he felt a soft pair of lips against his neck, gifting him a small, lingering kiss, barely there. Keith stilled beneath them, his breath frozen in his chest. 

“You okay?” Lance asked softly, his lips ghosting along the sensitive part of Keith’s neck where his scales softened into skin, near the nape of his neck. It was a vulnerable spot to let someone so close to, even a human that lacked the jaw to damage it, but Keith knew he trusted Lance. Maybe it was a stupid thing to do, trusting him; Lance could be tricking him, could have been sent by the human king to earn Keith’s trust and kill him, but even if that was the case, Keith didn't care. He had no life worth living if Lance was here to take it. Lance’s lips kept moving, eventually landing in another spot and pressing another kiss there before continuing, trailing the length of Keith’s neck and distracting him from the danger. “You went a little glossy-eyed on me, there.”

“’M okay,” Keith mumbled back, fighting to get a grip on himself. He couldn’t imagine what he looked like right then—eyes glazed over, cheeks dusted pink, wings draped behind him since he lacked the energy to keep them held up, tail trying to find purchase somewhere on Lance’s body as Keith’s head dropped to the side, giving Lance as much room as he needed to explore his skin with his soft, warm lips. He probably looked weak, looked soft, looked so unlike the terrifying predator he was supposed to be. And he didn't know what it meant that Lance had pulled him so close, that Lance was peppering his neck with kisses as if it was something they’d done before, something he knew Keith wanted him to do. But he didn't want to think too much about it, because then it might stop. 

“Does it have to be a dragon?” Lance asked lowly, his fingertips beginning to trace patterns at the small of Keith’s back as his lips brushed along his skin, smooth as silk. Keith eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice (why did he never remember closing them?), his brow furrowing as he struggled to process his words.

“Does—Does what have to be a dragon?”

“Whoever you mate with,” Lance murmured, pressing a kiss to the corner of Keith’s jaw, his teeth scraping gently before they were gone again, his attention moving back down his neck. “Does it have to be another dragon?”

Keith shivered, his hands clutching fistfuls of the back of Lance’s shirt desperately. Well, there it was. He couldn’t lie about it now. “N-No…”

“Let me do it, then,” Lance said, words Keith hadn’t even let himself dream he’d ever hear from Lance’s lips so soon. “Let me take care of you.”

“I—I… I can’t ask you to do that,” Keith choked out, despite how desperately he wanted to say yes. Gods, this was everything he’d been dreaming of— _ more, _ actually—so why wasn’t he saying yes? It just felt…  _ wrong, _ like Lance wasn’t supposed to want the same things Keith wanted, like Lance wasn’t supposed to offer of his own free will. 

“You’re not asking, Keith,” Lance said, soothing his hands up Keith’s back slowly. “If you don’t  _ want  _ me to, then that’s different, and that’s okay. But if you  _ do, _ then please, please let me take care of you. I want to. I want this. I meant what I said before. I want  _ you. _ ”

“You… really?” Keith asked, feeling inexplicably like he was going to cry. It wasn’t that he thought Lance had been lying to him, just… he wanted it so bad that he figured there had to be a catch somewhere.

“Yes,” Lance said earnestly, reaching out to grip Keith’s chin and tilt his head until Keith was looking up into his eyes. “I don’t know what dragons call it, and it doesn’t really matter to me. Boyfriends, mates, partners, whatever. I want to be with you, every day that I can. I want to do this, want to help you and make you feel better. So please, please let me.”

“Lance,” Keith said, voice threatening to crack. “Lance, if we do this… dragons mate for life. My mating bite will bond us together, in a way that will affect you just as much as me. If you’re not sure about this, not serious…”

“I  _ am, _ Keith,” Lance told him, leaning in to give him a soft kiss. “What part of ‘I want to be with you every day’ makes you think I’m not sure? I want this, Keith. I want it so bad. I want to be bound to you, want to be your mate. I want to be yours, Keith. Please.”

Keith hesitated for another second before he nodded, letting his eyes slip closed as Lance’s fingers slid into his hair, grabbing a handful of the strands and carefully tilting his head back. Keith opened his eyes again when Lance tapped his cheek with the pad of a finger, breath hitching at the dark blue eyes staring back at him. “Let me hear you say it.”

“Please, Lance,” Keith breathed, feeling only a flash of embarrassment over the desperate lilt his voice had taken on before it was gone again, evaporated in the heat. “Please take care of me. I want you, too. _ ” _

“Gods,” Lance muttered quietly, the hand that was in Keith’s hair sliding around to cup his cheek, the other returning to his hip as he stroked over the patch of scales there lightly with his thumb. “I didn’t know how to tell you this for a long time, didn’t know if I should, but... you’re so, so beautiful, Keith.”

Keith made a soft sound in the back of his throat in response, leaning into Lance’s touch as he looked up at him with hooded eyes. No one had ever called him beautiful before. Keith figured Lance was probably the only one stupid enough to think so. But it had brought them here, with Lance’s hands on his overheated skin and Keith sitting pretty in his lap, so he couldn’t find it in himself to complain. Especially not when Lance seemed to lose his patience and tightened his grip on Keith’s cheek, pulling him in and pressing their lips together. 

Even after the first time, kissing was still a completely new sensation to Keith. Everything about mating was new to him, something he’d never actually done himself, but kissing was a foreign concept completely. But just like before, it was easy to forget about how little he knew when it was actually happening, Lance’s lips moving against his and setting off fireworks behind his closed eyes. He tried to follow Lance’s lead as well as he could, tilting his head and copying Lance’s rhythm, doing his best to hold in the pleased noises that were threatening to escape his throat. 

“Let me hear you, baby. Don’t hide from me,” Lance murmured, pulling back just long enough to get the words out before he was diving in again, his tongue flickering out from between his lips to trail along Keith’s. The sensation and the words combined were enough to pull a whimper from the depths of Keith’s chest, his lips parting on instinct as Lance’s tongue slipped inside. Baby. Lance had called him  _ baby. _

Keith didn’t hold himself back after that, let his gasps and moans go uninhibited as Lance mapped the inside of his mouth, simultaneously ramping up and cooling down the heat in his veins. He caught onto Lance’s kissing techniques quickly and did his best to use them against him, determined to make Lance feel as good as he did. It was so much different than last time, kissing Lance like this. This was heavy and heated and desperate, where their kisses before had been soft and shy and unsure. 12It was good, it was so much better than anything Keith had ever imagined, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more, knew Lance could give him more, and he wanted it. 

He began to squirm impatiently in Lance’s lap, mostly unaware he was doing it. Lance’s hands, which had been exploring Keith’s body as thoroughly as his tongue had been exploring his mouth, moved down to grip his hips. Keith let out a soft whine, thinking Lance was going to force him to sit still and be patient. But he instead used his grip to guide Keith in a more calculated motion, grinding their hips together with the barest of friction. 

Keith let loose a low groan regardless, careful not to dig his claws into Lance’s shoulders as he attempted to steady himself, following Lance’s lead and rolling his hips again. He could feel Lance’s erection pressing against him through the restrictive fabric of his pants, could feel his own erection straining and his slick leaking, slowly but surely wetting the inside of his undergarments and his inner thighs. 

“Lance…” Keith moaned breathlessly into his mouth, panting against his lips as Lance pulled back the tiniest inch, giving them the space to breathe each other’s air. 

“What do you need, baby?” Lance asked, sounding just as affected as Keith felt. It made something pleased curl in his gut, made him feel powerful knowing he could drive Lance just as crazy as he was driving him. He struggled to organize his thoughts, distracted by the steady rocking of his hips and the warmth of Lance’s hands, roaming over his bare chest and brushing over his nipples, just enough to tease.

“I—I need more,” he gasped out, tilting his head as Lance’s lips returned to his skin, tracing a searing trail along his jaw and down his neck. He moved with a singular focus, his teeth nipping and his lips sucking as he went but neither stopping in one place for too long, never long enough to leave a bruise. Keith ached for Lance to mark him up, to put his claim on him, to show everyone that Keith belonged to him—but he was afraid to ask, so he sat quietly and let Lance do as he pleased. 

Lance’s pace slowed once he reached his apparent destination, his tongue gliding smoothly over Keith’s skin as he licked into the dips and valleys of his collarbones, tracing their shape. He took his time licking and kissing at the hollow of Keith’s throat, pulling back after what felt like an eternity to blow over the dampness he’d left on his skin, making him shiver. Lance moved on to kiss a line from his collarbones to his shoulder, scraping his teeth over the scales littered there before moving back in, latching onto the softest part of Keith’s neck and sucking hard enough to make him gasp. 

Keith held his breath, waiting for Lance to kiss and tease and move on the way he had been, waiting for Lance to release his skin with a wet noise before a bruise had the chance to form. But Lance didn't let go, didn't move on until he’d worked a dark spot into the softness of Keith’s skin, pulling back to admire it for a second before picking a different spot and repeating the process. And he kept going that way for what felt like an eternity, feeling out the most sensitive spots on Keith’s neck and marking them up, seemingly oblivious to the way it had Keith gasping and panting above him, unbelievably worked up by just the thought of having these marks to remember Lance by even when he wasn’t around.

Keith felt embarrassingly light-headed already, head swimming with pleasure as Lance finally separated from his skin with a wet noise, pulling back to look at him. He tipped Keith’s chin down so he could meet his eyes, running the pad of his thumb over Keith’s bottom lip as his other hand slid from his hip to the small of his back, fingertips playing with the hem of his pants where it dipped below the base of his tail. Keith let out an eager noise in response, nipping at Lance’s thumb before letting his tongue dart out to sooth it, holding Lance’s gaze. 

Lance stared back at him with his dark eyes for a moment, Keith’s breath catching in his chest as he waited for him to move. The moment seemed to stretch on forever before he pushed his index finger into Keith’s mouth, the fingers of his other hand slipping beneath the band of his pants at the same time. His fingertip petted over Keith’s tongue as his hand slid down to cup a handful of his ass, giving it a light squeeze. “How about that, baby, is that enough?”

Keith made a soft noise in the back of his throat and shook his head quickly, sucking sloppily at Lance’s finger as he rocked his hips, pushing his ass back into Lance’s hand. Lance slid a second finger into his mouth alongside the first, clicking his tongue as he squeezed his ass harder. “No? That’s not enough for my greedy little boy?” Keith moaned and shook his head again, circling his tongue around each of Lance’s fingers in turn as he looked at him, trying to communicate what he wanted Lance to give him with his eyes. 

Lance pushed his fingers deep into Keith’s throat, gagging him with them before pulling them back to hook carelessly over the line of his teeth, tilting his head back where he wanted it as his other hand yanked Keith’s pants down over the curve of his ass, exposing it to the air. He held Keith’s gaze as his fingers dipped closer to where Keith wanted him, smoothing over the line of his tail before sliding lower, teasingly slow. “You know,” Lance said, fingers petting slowly over the softened baby scales of his tail and his smooth, unexplored skin, the vulnerability of the place Keith was letting Lance touch making him shiver. “I didn’t get a good look when you showed me all this before. I was trying not to look, of course, didn’t want to be rude. But I’ve been dying to see it again, ever since.”

Lance’s fingers in his mouth stopped Keith from answering properly but he let out a whine, shifting his hips in an attempt to move Lance’s hand lower. He was so achingly close to where Keith needed him, yet he gave all his attention to the soft globes of his ass, the underside of his tail, the reddened pucker of his asshole. Keith begged him with his eyes, made needy sounds in the back of his throat as Lance teased him. The glint in Lance’s eyes told Keith he knew exactly what Keith wanted, he was just choosing to deny him. It made Keith whine loudly, his jaw closing down on Lance’s fingers to display his displeasure, his eyes narrowing up at him. Lance hissed and withdrew his fingers, bringing both hands up to push at Keith’s shoulders and knock him off his lap, back into the plush softness of the nest. 

Keith huffed out a soft breath as Lance leaned over him, one hand closing lightly over his throat as the other reached down to finishing tugging Keith’s pants down and out of the way, pulling them off his legs and tossing them to the side. “Behave,” Lance told him in a soft growl, pinning him with a look from his dark eyes as he spread Keith’s legs wide. Keith shivered and nodded, biting his lip to ward off the embarrassment he felt at being exposed the way he was. No one had ever seen him that way before, and as far as he knew, no one had ever wanted to. It was strange to have finally found someone that wanted to make him feel good. 

He watched silently as Lance’s eyes trailed down his body, his fingers following close behind. He wondered what Lance thought about what he saw, although he figured the hungry way Lance was taking him in was probably telling enough. He’d never felt  _ desirable _ before, and it was strange the way it made heat zip through him, flooding his veins with intense need. He let out a weak sound when Lance’s fingers wrapped loosely around his cock, his other hand continuing down to slide over his core, brushing through the wetness gathered there. “I didn’t see this before,” he murmured, fingers setting a tantalizing rhythm of back and forth, back and forth, wet sounds following the movement. Keith found it increasingly hard to focus, so close to finally getting what he’d been craving for days and days and days now. “I didn’t know I’d be lucky enough to get to play with both.”

Keith took in a shuddering breath, hips rocking absentmindedly and trying to urge Lance’s fingers to move faster. “A-All dragons can, ahh… we all have, um, b-both.” 

Lance grinned down at him, pulling his fingers away and bringing them back up to Keith’s mouth, pushing them inside again and letting Keith taste his own desperation as Lance settled between Keith’s spread thighs, dipping down low. “Lucky me,” he murmured, Keith’s muscles jumping as he pressed a soft kiss to the tip of his cock, trailing his lips down his length. He continued lower until he’d reached Keith’s pussy, suckling gently at his lips before licking a slow stripe through his seam, making Keith tremble. 

“Lance,” Keith whimpered softly as Lance repeated the action, a hand coming up to wrap around his cock and begin stroking him slowly, matching the pace of his tongue. Lance made a noise against him in answer, slowly increasing his pace as he buried his face between Keith’s thighs. Keith couldn’t decide which was more intoxicating: the feel of Lance’s warm fingers stroking solidly along his flesh or the feel of Lance’s hot tongue licking through him, warm and wet in a way Keith had never felt before. His hips rocked in time with his ministrations, one hand gripping at the nest beneath him as the other buried itself in Lance’s hair, tugging in encouragement. 

“You taste so good, baby,” Lance said lowly, pulling back a little and licking his lips as he met Keith’s eyes, hand still working his length. “Taste so, so good. I wanna feel you come apart on my tongue.” He kept Keith’s gaze as he went down on him again, sucking and licking and nipping at the wet mess between his thighs. Keith let out weak whimpers and moans in response, rolling his hips against Lance’s face as he dipped his tongue inside him, curling it before slowly dragging it out again. 

“O-Oh,” Keith breathed, eyelashes fluttering at the feeling. Fuck. He’d never felt anything like that before. Lance did it again, and again after that, eventually setting a steady rhythm of his tongue inside Keith as he jerked his cock at the same pace, twisting his wrist in a way that made Keith see stars. His hips rocked back and forth of their own accord, chasing the feeling of Lance’s skilled hand and mouth, taking him apart slowly but surely. He fucked himself back onto Lance’s tongue the best he could, letting out nearly inaudible whimpers each time Lance’s tongue left the heat of his pussy to run up along his seam, swirling around the apex before moving back down, diving back inside. 

Keith struggled to swallow the noises threatening to leak from his lips, his head tipped back and his mouth open in pleasure as he whimpered and moaned and mewled, fingers twisted up in the short strands of Lance’s hair. He let out an especially loud keen when Lance slipped a finger inside him, pushing in slowly as he rubbed through his slit with the thumb of his other hand, wiping up the precum beading at the tip of his cock. His thighs closed around Lance’s head as he began to thrust his finger inside him, his mouth still licking and sucking at his slick lips. It was too much and not enough at the same time, and Keith knew that if Lance kept it up for much longer, he’d be cumming on Lance’s tongue the way he wanted him to. 

Keith gasped when Lance pushed in a second finger, spreading him slowly as he played with the tip of Keith’s cock, rubbing his thumb solidly beneath the head. He crooked his fingers inside him and Keith cried out, hips jolting and tail whipping out to wrap around Lance’s bicep, curling around it tightly. “Lance, L-Lance, fuck. Oh, right there…” Lance grinned against him, massaging his fingers against Keith’s sweet spot as he dragged his palm against Keith’s tip. 

“Does that feel good, sweetheart?” Lance asked, panting softly against him as he moved his hands in tandem, quickening his pace. Keith had never felt anything like it, lit up with pleasure from the inside out. Lance was moving so quickly it felt like Keith couldn’t catch his breath, hips working in frantic circles in an attempt to keep up.

“Yeah, yeah,  _ s-so  _ good,” Keith gasped, immediately letting out a whine when Lance slowed his hands again. Lance huffed a soft laugh against his skin before repositioning himself, hovering over the tip of Keith’s cock as a third finger teased at his entrance.

“Can’t keep that pace forever, baby,” he murmured, Keith’s cock twitching as he warm breath blew across his tip. “But don’t worry, I’ll make you feel good.” That was all the warning Keith got before Lance’s mouth was closing around his head, one hand holding the base of his cock steady as the other worked his third finger inside the tight clutch of Keith’s pussy. Keith cried out at the feeling, barely keeping his hips from bucking up into the euphoric heat of Lance’s mouth. He clutched tightly at Lance’s hair as he bobbed his head, taking in a little more of Keith’s length with each movement as his fingers moved slowly, working him open.

Keith let out desperate sounds as he rocked his hips back and forth, impaling himself on Lance’s fingers before chasing the wet slide of Lance’s mouth around his cock, chest heaving as he moved. Lance hadn’t even been touching him for that long and Keith already felt like his blood was burning, his focus on nothing but reaching his inevitable climax. Lance, as if he could sense how close Keith was to the edge, redoubled his efforts, taking his cock deep into his throat with every bob of his head as he pumped his fingers inside him quickly, the wet noises of his movements echoing in the cave around them. 

Keith lost control of himself as he neared his orgasm, noises he’d never heard himself make before leaving his lips as his hips jerked unsteadily, fucking back and forth between the two overwhelming sources of pleasure. Lance didn't complain, didn't try to stop him as Keith used him, thighs trembling on either side of Lance’s head as he was finally tipped over the edge. 

Lance moaned around his cock as Keith’s cum shot down his throat, his pussy clenching tightly around his fingers as Lance slowly worked him through it. He only pulled back once Keith began to paw at him, trembling from oversensitivity as Lance took the time to clean up his cock before pulling back completely. Lance gave him a pleased grin from where he sat between Keith’s legs, chin shining with spit or slick or both and lips red, pupils blown wide. Keith looked back at him with flushed cheeks, panting softly as he recovered from his orgasm.

“Was that good?” Lance asked breathlessly, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe his face before pulling his shirt off completely, tossing it off to the side somewhere to join Keith’s pants.

“Y-Yeah,” Keith stuttered, eyes glued to the muscled surface of his chest. “You’re, um… really good at that.”

“I’ve done my fair share of cock-sucking,” Lance said, shrugging as if it wasn’t something worth noting. It made Keith blush harder, biting at his bottom lip as he looked off to the side. Right. Lance wasn’t a virgin. With a face like that, how could he be? Keith flinched when he felt soft fingers against his chin, guiding his head back to the front so Keith was looking at Lance again, immediately entranced by the soft look on his face. “But I must say,” Lance continued, his smile just as teasing as it was genuine. “Yours is my favorite by  _ far.” _

Keith couldn’t help the pleased smile that broke out against his lips at the words, a strange warmth erupting in his chest that mixed pleasantly with the low heat that was already there, still churning low and hot beneath the surface of Keith’s skin. “No one’s, ah… ever done that to me before,” Keith admittedly lowly, not meeting Lance’s eyes. “But… I think you did it better than anyone else could have, anyway.” 

Lance let out a soft laugh, eyes crinkling a little at the edges. “Well, that’s very good to hear,” he smiled, sitting up against and settling himself back against the edge of the nest where he’d been before, patting his thighs. “C’mere.”

Keith sat up slowly and crawled over until he was sprawled in Lance’s lap again, glad to be sitting up and not laying back on his wings. He settled so he was straddling him as Lance’s hands came to rest on Keith’s hips, thumbs stroking over the soft patch of scales littered there. Keith shifted as the feeling sent a shiver down his spine, cheeks flushing at the strangled sound the movement pulled from Lance’s mouth. It was then that Keith registered the feeling of Lance’s notable erection pressing up against him, still hard and aching for relief. He bit his lip and looked up to meet Lance’s eyes, rocking his hips lightly. “Do you, um… want me to take care of that?”

“You don’t have to,” Lance said quickly, shaking his head as he used his grip on Keith’s hips to slow them to a stop. “It’s okay.”

Keith pouted at him, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck as he rocked his hips harder, a soft noise catching in the back of his throat. “Do you not want me to?”

“Of course I want you to, baby,” Lance replied, his voice rough with arousal as he stopped attempting to control the movement of Keith’s hips, letting him grind against him. “I just don’t want to put any pressure on you. You’ve never done this before, you know? I’m happy to do this for you without getting anything back.”

“But I want to,” Keith said, pouting harder. “I want to make you feel good, too. I  _ want _ you.” He paired his words with a particularly dirty grind of their hips, pleased with punched out moaned Lance let out in return.

“You… You want me—like that?” Lance asked, moving his hips in a simulated thrust against Keith to articulate what he meant without saying the words. Keith couldn’t help but let out a soft giggle at his sudden shyness, nodding his head. 

“Yeah. I want you to take me, Lance, fuck me, make me yours,” Keith said, letting out a soft moan at the thought. “I want it so bad...”

“Okay,” Lance said, blowing out a soft breath as he nodded. “Okay. But we’re gonna do it like this, so you can control how fast we go, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“Okay,” Keith agreed, nodding quickly. He didn't care how they did it, he wanted Lance inside him  _ yesterday. _ “Come on, get naked already.”

Lance laughed and shook his head, his hands disappearing from Keith’s sides and leaving him cold. “Lift your hips, baby.”

Keith did as he asked and was rewarded by Lance’s pants and undergarments being shoved down hurriedly and kicked off his legs, landing somewhere off to the side as Lance gripped his hips and pulled him down again. They both moaned at the feeling of skin meeting skin, Lance’s erection was hot and stiff against the lips of Keith’s pussy as he immediately began to grind his hips, soft gasps falling from his lips. 

“Fuck, Keith,” Lance breathed, fingertips digging in against Keith’s scales as they moved together, Keith’s slick soaking the length of Lance’s cock and making the slide deliciously easy, warm and wet and so, so good. 

“Please,” Keith begged, unable to feel even a hint of embarrassment at the way his voice came out as a whimper. “I need you, Lance,  _ please.” _

“Are you ready for me, baby?” Lance asked, moaning as Keith shifted his hips impatiently, attempting to spear himself on Lance’s cock without any help. 

“Yes,  _ yes, _ I’m ready, Lance, get inside me,” Keith whined, leaning over to rest his forehead against Lance’s as he rolled his hips with increasing desperation, making frustrated noises in the back of his throat. He just needed to be filled, mated, bred, just needed to feel Lance inside him. Lance huffed a small laugh at Keith’s mindless actions, tilting his chin to capture Keith’s lips in a kiss as he reached between them, gripping the base of his cock with one hand and guiding Keith’s hips with the other, lining up the tip and letting out a low groan as Keith slowly sank onto it.

Keith kept up the kiss as well as he could, making breathless sounds into Lance’s mouth as he slowly worked himself on Lance’s cock, sliding onto it before pulling himself back up, taking in a little more each time. There was no searing pain like he’d somewhat expected, just the heat of Lance’s throbbing cock, the wet glide of his slick eliminating the friction, the surprisingly tolerable ache of being split open, filled up. 

By the time Keith had bottomed out, they weren’t kissing so much as breathing and moaning into each other’s mouths, passing shallow gasps of air back and forth as Keith paused, letting himself get used to the feeling. Gods, it was better than he’d ever imagined. It was better than his fingers, better than Lance’s fingers, better than Lance’s tongue. It was so good Keith was starting to feel dizzy, and he hadn’t even started moving yet.

He tipped his head back to take deeper breaths as he began to slowly rock his hips, Lance’s lips immediately latching onto his exposed neck as his hands stayed firmly planted on either hip, steadying him. Keith’s fingers wrapped around Lance’s shoulder blades as he circled his hips experimentally, keeping Lance’s face pressed into his neck. Lance’s fingers were drawing tantalizing circles over the sensitive cluster of scales at his hips, matching Keith’s pace as he gained confidence, picking his hips up a little before pushing back down. They let out twin moans at the feeling, Lance’s breath of warm air blowing across his collarbones and making him shiver. 

Lance sat back up fully as Keith began to move properly, his thighs lifting him up before letting gravity take him back down, spearing him on Lance’s cock. Lance sat very still, patiently waiting for Keith as he moved at his own pace. Keith appreciated the patience, but he wasn’t fragile, certainly not compared to Lance. It was only a few moments before Keith could work himself up and down Lance’s entire length, lifting up until only the tip was still inside before chasing the slick glide of Lance reentering him, filling him up. 

It was intoxicating, the feeling of having Lance inside him. He’d never in his wildest dreams imagined he’d ever be here, sat astride Lance’s cock as he fucked himself, letting out a little whiny moan every time he bottomed out. He’d never imagined Lance would be looking at him like he was, looking like he wanted to  _ devour _ him, looking like he was struggling to hold himself back and let Keith control the pace. It didn't help the heat inside Keith receed any, didn't help the amount of slick leaking from him, wetting Lance’s cock. In fact, it only served to inspire Keith to move his hips faster, adjusting the spread of his legs to give him more leverage as he began to bounce in Lance’s lap.

The sound Lance let out in response had Keith throbbing around him, pleasure racing up his spine in electrifying bolts. Lance’s hands found the curve of Keith’s ass and took it upon themselves to grab two large handfuls, using the grip to pull Keith’s hips down faster,  _ harder, _ with every thrust. It had Keith choking on his moans, fingertips digging desperately into Lance’s shoulders as he tried to breath through the haze of pleasure assaulting him. It felt like he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, felt like his legs were going to give out if he kept going, but he didn't want it to stop. He never wanted it to stop.

Lance, apparently able to read Keith’s mind, brought his hands back to Keith’s hips just long enough to stop them, pulling Keith’s legs up next to his sides. Keith started to whine breathlessly before he suddenly found himself on his back again, Lance leaning over him and pushing his thighs up against his chest. Lance’s sharp grin was his only warning before he began pistoning his hips forward, fucking into Keith quickly. It seemed as if his concern for Keith controlling the pace was gone, replaced by the urgency of lust, driven by the flood of heat. 

Keith couldn’t find it in himself to complain, however. It felt like Lance could reach so much deeper like this, could fuck him so much harder and faster and  _ better _ than Keith could just bouncing on his cock. It felt like every moan and whimper was punched out of him, the air leaving his lungs in a rush with every snap of Lance’s hips against his own. It felt like Lance knew exactly what he was doing, which he probably did. 

Lance had probably fucked a million people before, had probably filled them  _ so good,  _ just the way he was doing now. Keith tried not to think about it, but he couldn’t really help it. Keith’s heat made him far more possessive than usual, and just the thought of Lance being with someone else was enough to fill him with a primal sort of rage. Rationally, he knew it was ridiculous. Humans mated for pleasure far more often than for commitment, so Lance being with others before him didn't necessarily  _ mean _ anything. It was foolish for Keith to expect that Lance had lived the same life of celibacy and loneliness that he had, because they lived vastly different lives in vastly different worlds. 

But the rational part of his brain wasn’t in control at the moment. He couldn’t help but worry that he wasn’t being good enough for Lance, that Lance had been with people far better and more knowledgeable than Keith and that he’d never compare. He worried that he was too different from a human, that Lance would tire of the demand of his heat and the nuances in his anatomy. He worried that Lance would tire of seeing him in general, that the trek up to his mountain would eventually prove to be too much and Lance would stop coming all together. 

For Keith, this moment and every other moment he’d spent with Lance had been the best times of his life. Even before the war, when his life had been normal and peaceful, surrounded by love and family, nothing compared to this. Nothing compared to the way it felt to be  _ chosen _ by another, the way it felt to know there were differences and difficulties that stood in the way but weren’t enough to keep them apart. But what if he was reading into it wrong? What if he was misunderstanding the way Lance felt about him? What if he was confusing Lance’s intentions with him? Worse yet, what if Lance was just lying to him, just telling him what he wanted to hear so he’d be able to go home and tell everyone he’d laid with a stupid, foolish dragon?

It didn't help that despite his crippling uncertainty his body just wanted to  _ take _ . He wanted to mate Lance  _ properly,  _ wanted to bite down and claim him for all of eternity in a way that Lance couldn’t refuse. Lance had said he understood, after all, seemed to think he knew exactly what he was getting into, and some part of Keith ached for him to take that as good enough and bite down, bind himself to Lance in a way that was  _ permanent. _

He couldn’t stop himself from nosing his way into the crook of Lance’s neck, taking a deep, deep breath of his scent. Gods, he smelled so good. He smelled so fresh, so human, so pure. Keith couldn’t get enough of it, could easily spend the rest of his life breathing it in and letting it mix with his own, which was why he had to know for sure. Even if it meant he got hurt or lost Lance or made himself look like a lovesick fool, he had to know for sure. 

“What’re you thinking so hard about, baby?” Lance murmured in his ear, jolting Keith out of his thoughts as he brought a hand up to brush Keith’s sweaty bangs away from his face, continuing to thrust into him and send wave after wave of pleasure rushing across Keith’s skin. 

Keith was only mildly embarrassed at the way tears immediately welled in his eyes, out of Lance’s view until he pulled back at the sound of Keith’s sniffle, brow worried in concern and confusion at the sight of Keith suddenly crying. “Baby?” he asked again, hips slowing to a stop as he reached a hand up to cup Keith’s cheek. “What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?”

Keith shook his head quickly, tears dripping down his cheeks. He wasn’t, not physically, anyway. Keith just had to  _ know.  _ He took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut tightly before peeling them open again, looking up and meeting Lance’s worried eyes. “Do you love me?” 

Lance blinked at him, clearly shocked by Keith’s question. They hadn’t really talked about their exact feelings yet, beyond the words like  _ boyfriends  _ and  _ mates  _ that didn't put a label on anything more than the nature of their relationship. It was possible that this conversation should have come much earlier, not in the middle of sex, but Keith couldn’t help himself. He was emotional and vulnerable and he couldn’t deny the way he felt, couldn’t go another second without letting Lance know and hopefully,  _ hopefully _ hearing it back. 

“Keith, of course I do,” Lance said after a minute, frowning a little at him. “I wouldn’t come see you all the time if I didn't, right?”

“No, no, no,” Keith said, breath hiccuping as he shook his head. “Not like that. What I mean is—are you  _ in _ love with me, Lance?” Lance looked at him in silence again, a troubled look on his face. Keith could only look back for a few seconds before he had to look away, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried not to outright sob. Of course. Of course he wasn’t! 

“Keith,” Lance said softly, gripping his chin between his fingertips and tilting Keith’s head back in his direction, meeting his eyes. “Don’t do that. I was just surprised, okay? And everything about this is kinda crazy, you know? I’m a human, you’re a dragon, I’ll only live a day compared to you and my family will never approve of us being together. But… I guess that doesn’t really matter does it? Because in all honesty,  _ yes. _ I love you, I’m  _ in _ love with you, and I can’t… think of any reason to regret that.”

“W-Wait,” Keith said, sniffling. “You… really? You love me? Like  _ that?” _ He was… kind of having trouble wrapping his head around it. When he asked, he’d been bracing himself for a rejection, a soft, careful let-down because Lance was a soft, careful person. The last thing he’d expected was for Lance to… to feel the same. It made him feel giddy, the longer he thought about it. Lance loved him! Lance loved him  _ back! _

“Yeah, I do,” Lance said, laughing softly as he smiled down at Keith, brushing the tears from his cheeks. “I have for a while now. I just… didn't know if I should say so.”

“So… you’re not just doing this as a favor to me? Or because you feel bad for me? You’re doing it because… you want to and you love me?” Keith asked, giving a slight rock of his hips to make sure Lance understood the context of his question. Lance laughed again, seemingly taking it as an invitation to start rocking into Keith slowly, sweetly, setting a steady pace again.

“What did I tell you before, silly baby? I want this. I want you. I want to be your mate, your boyfriend, your partner, your number one for life. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. I’m doing this because I want to, because I love you, because I want to make you feel good. Watching you all flushed and squirmy and needy was driving me crazy,” Lance said, his voice low and soft. Keith let out a mewl, looping his arms around Lance’s neck and pulling him down into a kiss as Lance rolled his hips faster. He was still more fairly slowly but their hips were coming together hard, the sound of skin slapping skin echoing around them as Keith licked into his mouth desperately, clinging to him. Lance swallowed every noise Keith made, kissing him back just as needily as he gripped Keith’s hips, pulling him in. 

Keith’s tail came up to coil around Lance’s leg desperately, steadying him against Lance’s powerful thrusts as he broke away from the kiss with a gasp, tipping his head back and panting. The urge to bite was back, stronger than before, settling in his jaw and teeth and making them throb with need. And it felt different, this time, now that Keith knew his feelings were returned. It felt like a  _ possibility, _ like Keith could open his mouth and tell Lance he needed to bite him and Lance would say  _ yes. _

And, well, Keith would never know until he tried, would he?

He lifted his head again and locked gazes with Lance, still panting softly as he buried his fingers in the sweaty locks of Lance’s hair and tilted his head where he wanted it. He leaned in and breathed in Lance’s scent again, eyelashes fluttering. Gods, he’d never get over it. “Lance,” he gasped softly, wrapping his legs tightly around him as he nuzzled beneath his chin, letting Lance’s scent soak him. “Lance, I need it.  _ Please.” _

“Please, what?” Lance asked from above him, doing his best to nuzzle Keith back. “Tell me what you need, baby, I’ll give it to you.”

“I need to bite,” Keith said, his voice coming out in a needy whine as he tipped his head back again, opening his mouth and letting Lance see his fangs, probably dripping with the saliva he’d be injecting into Lance with his bite in order to claim him. He certainly felt like he was salivating, his mouth filling up with the rising need to sink his teeth into Lance’s smooth, unmarred flesh, a blank canvas for the art of his mating mark. 

“Okay, baby,” Lance said, cooing soothingly in the back of his throat in an attempt to comfort Keith, who hadn’t registered the desperate, needy noises he was making until they cut off. “It’s okay, baby, you can bite. Just wait a little longer, okay? Just wait until you cum, it’ll feel better.”

Keith barely had time to nod before Lance’s hips were hitching, picking up speed as his fingers came down to wrap around Keith’s severely neglected cock. It ripped an embarrassingly desperate noise from the depth of his chest, his back arching up against Lance as he began to stroke him off in time with his thrusts. He could tell Lance was getting close, his pace hurried and uncoordinated as he tried to bring them off together. Keith was following along right behind him, his forked tongue darting out to lick across his lips as the anticipation of finally getting to mark Lance rose. He felt his pleasure slowly cresting, his face burying itself in Lance’s neck as his hips jerked back and forth between Lance’s cock and hand. 

Lance came first, a punched out groan leaving his lips as his cock twitched inside him, painting his insides with warm cum. The feeling alone was enough to send Keith over the edge, his teeth wasting no time in burying themselves into the juncture between Lance’s neck and shoulder, biting down hard. He barely registered Lance’s responding cry, his orgasm shaking through him as kept his jaw clenched down tightly, his eyes sliding shut as he felt the bond being slowly woven between them.

When he came to a few moments later he was back in Lance’s lap, cradled tightly in his arms as Lance murmured comforting things into his ear, stroking over every inch of skin he could reach. Keith could feel the sweat and cum drying on his skin, making him uncomfortable yet extremely satisfied as he slowly released his aching jaw, immediately licking over the wound he’d left behind. 

“Hey, baby,” Lance murmured softly, the smile evident in his voice. Keith couldn’t help but smile back, feeling drunk on the sight of his mark on Lance’s neck. “How’re you feeling?”

“So good,” Keith purred, nuzzling himself beneath Lance’s chin, careful not to poke him with his horns. Lance laughed softly, grabbing Keith by the back of the neck and leading him backwards, capturing his lips in a soft kiss. Keith purred happily into the kiss, wrapping himself around Lance tightly, pressing their bodies as close together as he could. Dragons often spent days upon days together after a mating bite was made, but Keith he wouldn’t be able to have that. Lance would have a few hours max before he had to return down the mountain, so Keith wanted to make the most of it while he could. 

Lance kept Keith pulled tight against his chest as he rearranged them, laying them down on their sides. Keith’s purring grew louder as Kosmo stepped into the nest behind him, sniffing curiously at the various things drying on Keith’s skin before curling up against his back, letting out a soft huff as he settled down. Keith’s little family was now all in one place, and the feeling hit so deep it knocked the breath out of his lungs.

This time last year, Keith had been lonely, living alone and under the assumption it would always be that way. But now, Keith had a pet pressed up warm and soft against his back, a mate pressed up sweet and loving against his front, all while his mate’s spend trickled slowly from between his legs and his claiming mark healed slowly but surely in his mate’s skin. 

It was, all things considered, a miracle. Keith wasn’t sure a dragon had ever mated with a human before despite the fact that it was a biological possibility, but there wasn’t anyone left to judge him. Keith had fallen for Lance, so slowly he almost hadn’t even noticed, and he didn't want to take any of it back. Lance was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and for Keith to be able to  _ have _ him in the way he did now was surely the most luck he’d ever have. Keith didn't regret anything that had happened, didn't take back anything that had come from it. And if the blissed out look on Lance’s face was anything to go by, he didn't regret it either. 


	8. i dont know what feels true—summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know,” Allura said after a moment, letting out a heavy, resigned sigh as she spoke, “one day that curious head of yours is going to get us both killed.”
> 
> “You’re going to help me?” Lance asked, unable to contain the smile that broke out across his face.
> 
> “Against my better judgement, yes,” she said, nodding as she stood and gestured for him to do the same, walking quickly towards the door and leaving Lance to scramble to catch up. “Come with me. I think I know of someone who can help us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here it is, the bass drop you've all been waiting for

“Lance, no,” Allura said, shaking her head firmly at him.

“Come on, Allura. Help me out,” Lance said, pouting and giving her his best puppy eyes.

“I’ve already helped you out, Lance! And that resulted in me almost getting caught, which could have easily gone on to result in me getting put in jail or  _ killed.”  _ The sharp look that accompanied her words was enough to make Lance wince, looking away guiltily. Yes, technically she had a point. But still! “So no, I’m not helping you again. I’m sorry, Lance.”

“Allura,” Lance said, this time fully whining at her. He couldn’t deny that she was well within her right to be wary of helping him again. He hadn’t really expected her to even help him the first time, and once he’d found the information he was looking for, he’d kind of gotten so mad he almost got them caught. But this time it was somehow even  _ more _ important that he get into the castle archives, and he needed her to understand. “You know why I need to do this.”

“I don’t, actually,” Allura said primly, fixing him with the most graceful glare Lance had ever been given. As if Lance needed another reminder that she was the daughter of a noble, and therefore his best and really only chance to get into the archives again. “The only thing you’ve told me so far is that you need to do more undisclosed research for some undisclosed reason that’s suddenly very important. What is it you need to know that you can’t find in the common archives, hmm? What are you looking for that’s worth risking your  _ life _ over, Lance?”

Lance let out a groan, slumping back against his chair. He was hoping he could get away with this without revealing too much to her. The last time he’d gotten into the archives he’d managed to keep his lips sealed tightly, even after his reaction to the information he was looking for almost cost them. He didn't exactly need her judging him for his choices, and he wasn’t sure if telling her the truth was more likely to help him or hurt him. But if she wasn’t going to budge without knowing, then what choice did he have? What did he have to lose? He took a deep breath and sat up again to meet her eyes, bringing his hand up to the collar of his shirt so he could yank it to the side once he was ready. “Okay, fine. Listen. You’ve heard the stories our people tell about dragons, right?”

“Yes, Lance,” Allura said, sighing at him. “Everyone who lives here has. What of them?”

“Well… months ago, I heard one of the stories and I started wondering whether or not they were based in any truth. The story told of a lonely dragon that lived alone in his cave at the top of the mountain, and I thought it was kind of hard to believe that there’d be a dragon up there, so close to our home, that we’d never even actually seen. So one day I decided to just… take a trip up the mountain and see what I could find.”

“And what did you find, Lance?” Allura asked, trying to sound disinterested even though Lance could see the way her body language had changed, her entire torso facing him and her face leaning in just slightly, hooked on his every word.

“I found a dragon,” Lance said, smiling at the soft gasp that caught in the back of Allura’s throat. 

“They’re real, then?” Allura asked, eyes wide and disbelieving. “They’re not just a story told by mothers trying to scare their children?”

“It was just like the stories said,” Lance told her, nodding. “He was up there in a cave, all alone, and I kind of felt bad for him. So I went up there every day and talked to him, got to know him, and, well... taught him a thing or two about humans and their culture.”

“So, you’re… friends with a dragon, now?” Allura asked, tilting her head inquisitively. 

Lance’s blushed a little at that, looking away from her. “Well… sure. I guess you could call it that.” He steadfastly ignored her raised eyebrow, continuing on with his story before he lost his nerve. “Anyway, eventually I started wondering again. I wanted to know  _ why _ he was up there all alone,  _ why _ he was the only dragon. He kept mentioning this conflict that had taken place between the dragons and the humans, and kept claiming that I didn't need to know anything about it when I would try to ask. So that’s why I came to you last time. I thought I might be able to find something about it in the archives.”

“A conflict? Between dragons and humans?” Allura asked, looking confused. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“I hadn't either,” Lance told her, shaking his head. “But in the archives, I found several records that claimed the dragons came down upon the humans and ruthlessly slaughtered them, and in an effort to protect themselves, the humans slaughtered the dragons right back. And when I went back to the cave and told the dragon about what I’d found, he said it hadn’t happened like that, and I believed him. The  _ pain _ in his voice was… there’s no way anyone could fake a thing like that. He told me the story of the awful things the humans had done to the dragons and the way he’d managed to escape them, and that was the day I stopped... thinking of him as a monster. That was the day I really started to trust him.”

“So why are you here again, then?” Allura asked, leaning back in her chair again as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What else could you possibly need to know, if you believe the dragon’s story?”

“Well… him and I have kind of… fallen in love since then,” Lance told her sheepishly, tugging his shirt to the side so he could show her the bite on his shoulder. “We very recently, uh…  _ mated, _ and he gave me his mating bite, and… I just want to do something for him.”

“You’re really dragging this out, Lance.” Allura smiled, leaning forward again and bracing her arms against the desk between them, thankfully choosing not to comment on his choice of partner. “What is it you wish to do for this dragon mate of yours? Tell me, and I will consider giving my assistance.”

“I want to know if there are any other dragons out in the world beyond our kingdom,” Lance said, blowing out a breath. “He told me that his clan of dragons was tasked by the gods to temper the skies, and that made me think that maybe his wasn’t the only clan out there. Because the world is a vast, vast place, and having all the control centered on one small mountain doesn’t make very much sense, does it?”

“It doesn’t,” Allura agreed, shaking her head. “So, you wish to… what? Find another clan for your mate to join?”

“Ideally, yes,” Lance said, nodding. “But really, I just want to know if he’s  _ truly _ the last dragon left. If not, maybe I can convince him to go and find them, so he’ll be happy again.”

“And what about you? What about  _ us? _ If he’s truly the one to temper the skies, then what will our kingdom do if he’s gone?”

“I don’t know.” Lance shrugged, looking down at his hands. “But our ancestors weren’t concerned with what would happen without the dragons around to help us, so why should I be? Especially when keeping him here means possibly denying him the chance to be with creatures that are like him, that  _ understand _ him. I can’t let our kingdom be my priority.”

“And you? You’re willing to give your mate up so easily?”

“Of course not,” Lance scoffed, shaking his head. “I would go with him.” 

Allura smiled at him, shaking her head a little. “Of course. I should have known. You’d give up your life here?”

“I would,” Lance said, nodding firmly. “If he can live the rest of his life without his family, then I can live the rest of my life without mine.”

“You always have been quite selfless that way,” Allura said, as if the news didn't surprise her in the slightest. 

“Will you help me, then?” Lance asked, looking up at her hopefully.

“Are you sure the information you wish to find is in the royal archives?” Allura asked, biting at her bottom lip uncertainly. “The last time we snuck inside, we gathered up every book that could have possibly held mention of what you were looking for. And from what you just told me, that means you’ve already searched through every bit of information we have on dragons and our past interactions with them. If you did not find what you seek then, then I’m not sure you’ll find it now.”

“I don’t need you to help me get inside the royal archives,” Lance said, shaking his head. “You’re right, I don’t think what I’m looking for will be there.” 

“What do you need me to do, then?” Allura asked, confused.

“I talked with the dragon recently and… he told me a story he knew from his ancestors, one that told of tomes full of information about the world in its earliest days. He said that the dragons and humans and creatures of the world all gathered together to write down the stories of creation that the gods gave them, and when conflict and differences began to rise between them, they split the records up and sealed them away in their own special archives. And he said that when the war between the dragons and humans was over, the humans stole the dragon records back. So I think… aside from the common and royal archives, there’s a third one. And I think that’s where the information I’m looking for will be.” 

“You know,” Allura said after a moment, letting out a heavy, resigned sigh as she spoke, “one day that curious head of yours is going to get us both killed.”

“You’re going to help me?” Lance asked, unable to contain the smile that broke out across his face.

“Against my better judgement, yes,” she said, nodding as she stood and gestured for him to do the same, walking quickly towards the door and leaving Lance to scramble to catch up. “Come with me. I think I know of someone who can help us.”

* * *

Allura led them through town at a brisk pace, refusing to answer any of Lance’s questions and repeatedly hissing at him to keep it down, lest he get them caught. He could admit that he was being a bit reckless, asking the things he was around so many wandering ears, but he couldn’t help it. It was a miracle he’d managed to get Allura’s help, and another miracle yet that she actually had a lead. 

He had no idea where they were going, but at this point, he trusted Allura with his life. They were on the far opposite side of town from where Lance spent most of his time, and the farther they went, the less he recognized. They were slowly but surely venturing into rich and noble territory, and Lance felt like everyone was staring at him as he passed, so clearly out of place. Sure, he’d bought himself some new clothes with the money Keith had given him, but they still looked like rags compared to what Allura and the people around them wore. 

But eventually the amount of people around them began to thin out, and the buildings surrounding them melted from swarming businesses into quiet, seemingly empty houses, marking the stark difference between the market and residential districts of town. And although the feeling of being stared at had receded somewhat, Lance still felt incredibly out of place, like someone was going to come up to him and tell him to get out, that poor scum like him didn't deserve to walk on the same streets. He stayed close to Allura, looking around but never keeping his head raised for too long, unreasonably afraid he’d meet eyes with someone. 

They walked for a long time, passing house after house after house. But they didn't stop at any, didn't make a turn down any neighborhood streets. They kept going, deeper and deeper, until Lance wasn’t sure he even knew where they were anymore. And it wasn’t until they got a bit closer to their destination that Lance realized why he’d never been to or even been able to recognize where they were going, because Allura lead him right past every last house they saw and directly towards the quickly approaching treeline, not hesitating for a second as she plunged them into the trees.

“Allura?” Lance asked, brow furrowing as he brought his hands up to keep a few stray branches from whipping him in the face. “Where the hell are we going?”

“Shh, Lance,” Allura told him, turning to give him a look before turning back and continuing on. “We’re almost there.” 

And true to her word, they only walked for a few more minutes before they emerged from the trees again, following a short, paved path towards a solid, towering gate guarded by two figures draped in heavy plates of armor, staring at the two of them with thinly veiled glares. And behind the gate was a partially-obscured structure that was obviously part of the royal properties, although Lance wasn’t sure what its purpose was. He hadn’t even known it was here, and he doubted very many people did, which meant whatever was happening here was probably supposed to be a secret. 

The guards didn't stop glaring the entire time it took them to approach, not moving to do much of anything as they came to a stop in front of them. “Allura,” they greeted in monotonous unison, just barely dipping their heads in acknowledgement. 

“Nyma, Rolo,” Allura said, nodding her head in return. “I’m here to see my uncle.”

“Who’s this?” the guard on the right asked, gesturing with their spear towards Lance. 

“This is my cousin, Lance,” Allura said, not missing a beat. “He’s visiting from out of town.”

“What business do you have with Coran?” the other guard asked, looking at Allura suspiciously. 

“Simply paying him a visit. He said it gets awful lonely in there, and he’d love for me to come by. You can ask him, if you don’t believe me.” 

A beat of silence passed before the guards reached for the gate in unison, pulling it open and glaring at them as they moved forward to enter. “Make it quick.”

“Thanks!” Allura called cheerfully as she lead Lance inside, ignoring his wide-eyed stare as she took them towards the towering building in front of them. 

“Where the hell are we?” Lance hissed. “And cousin? Really?”

“Oh, shut up,” Allura said, rolling her eyes as they reached the end of the path, the two of them stepping onto the smooth, marble steps that lead up to the door. Allura pulled open said huge, heavy-looking wooden door as if she’d done it a million times before, shoving his inside before her and letting the door thud shut gently behind them. The foyer beyond was huge, the walls made of smooth mahogany and decorated with paintings and statues and plants, which were given light by the giant pane of glass set into the ceiling. There were three hallways branching off from the main room, and Allura gave him a bare second to look around before she was tugging him towards the one closest to them, leading him by a tight grip around his wrist. He wrinkled his nose but didn’t fight her, continuing his look around as she lead the way. “They wouldn’t have let you in if you weren’t related to me and Coran somehow. They take security kind of seriously here.” 

“Where  _ is _ here?” Lance asked, tripping over his feet in his wonder and barely managing to stay upright through Allura’s grip alone. The fancy art continued to spread down along the hallway as they walked, and an expensive-looking rug was quieting each and every one of their footfalls, making the building strangely and unnervingly quiet. The feeling of being too poor to be there was quickly returning to him, although it was clear there was no one around to banish him. Besides the guards they’d met at the gate, they hadn’t seen or even heard another soul the entire time they’d been inside. “You never answered that part. Where are we?”

“Ah, right,” Allura said, tugging his wrist and leading him to the right, down another hallway that branched off from the main path and managed to look almost exactly the same as the one they’d just turned out of. “Welcome, dear Lance to the Recondite.”

“The Recondite?” Lance asked, tilting his head in confusion. “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“You’re not supposed to,” Allura said, rolling her eyes again. “Think of this building as kind of… the hidden heart of the city. Any and all things that need to be kept a secret from the public and any potential enemies take place here. The king has a bunker here, too, in case something happens and he needs to be protected.”

“And your uncle works here?” Lance asked.

“He runs the place,” Allura said, taking a quick glance around before leading him down another hallway, once again identical to the last. He had no idea how Allura knew her way around in here when everything looked the same, but he sure was glad she did, because he knew that if it were up to him, he’d be helplessly lost already. “Coran used to be the right hand man of the late King Zarkon, and when he died and King Lotor took over, he wanted to replace Coran but he didn't want to fire him, so he sent him here. I think Coran likes this job much better, anyway, so it wasn’t much of a loss for him. Less people to bother him here.” 

“More like  _ no one _ to bother him, you mean,” Lance mumbled, still inexplicably unnerved by the lack of people around. This was a royal property that was apparently almost entirely a secret, so shouldn’t there be… someone? Anyone? More than two cursory guards and the man who apparently ran the place? Especially for a place this big, it seemed crazy to him that there was just…  _ no one.  _ “How is he gonna help us, anyway?” 

Allura yanked at his wrist again without warning, giving him a prim glare that told him he should keep his questions to himself as she lead them down yet another (and hopefully the last) identical hallway. “You’ll see when we get there,” she said, focusing her attention back on leading them forward almost immediately after. 

So Lance shut his mouth and followed behind, trying to keep track of where they were going but repeatedly getting distracted by the expensive decorations that lined the halls, catching his eye. He almost didn't notice when they finally came to a stop, too busy staring at the intricate detail carved into a statue of a woman nearby. Allura elbowed him in the side to get his attention before raising her hand and knocking on the door in front of them, having to wait a sparse few seconds before the door flew open, revealing a man that looked… absolutely nothing like Allura at all. 

“Allura!” the man—who Lance assumed to be Coran—said, moving forward to wrap her in a tight hug. “Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you!”

“Hey, Coran,” Allura smiled, letting out a soft laugh as she hugged him back. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Coran laughed heartily in return before pulling back, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders as his eyes landed on Lance, the grin on his face only widening at the sight of him. “And who’s this that you’ve brought with you? A potential suitor, perhaps?” 

Allura rolled her eyes at that, shaking Coran’s hands from her shoulders and gently pushing past him, leading Lance into the room after her. “No, Coran. This is my friend, Lance. And he has a boyfriend, so don’t even start.” 

Coran chuckled as he shut the door behind them, walking over to the desk in the middle of the room and settling in a chair on the opposite side of the desk from the one Lance was currently being shoved into—quite forcefully—by Allura. “Right, of course. I understand. I’m sure you’ll find a partner of your own in due time.”

“Believe it or not, Coran,” Allura said, sounding as exasperated as she always did with Lance but with the addition of a fond smile that took away any bite from the tone of her voice, “that’s not why we came to visit.”

“Ah, yes! My deepest apologies, I’m afraid I’ve been quite rude!” Coran said jovially, leaning forward in his chair and settling his arms against the desk, much the same way Allura had only a while earlier. It was easier to see their similarities this way, easier to feel as if he was living the whole moment over again. The day so far had been a strange one, to say the least, and he was afraid it was only going to get worse. “What can I help you with, my wonderful niece Allura and her very  _ handsome _ friend Lance?”

“Go on, Lance,” Allura said, reaching across the gap between their chairs to nudge him with her elbow. “Tell Coran why we’re here.” 

Lance took a deep breath, taking a moment to think through his words. He wasn’t sure where best to start, and he wanted to keep as many details to himself as he could, so he decided to just be fairly straightforward and fill in the backstory as was needed. “I’m looking for an archive,” he told Coran, blowing out a breath. “A secret archive, one that holds information about the earliest days of our world and the creatures that were alive then. I was told about its existence by someone recently, and I think it might hold some information that I’d like to get ahold of.”

“Ah,” Coran said after a moment of silence, sounding much more subdued than he had before as he steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “You’ve met the dragon, then?”

Lance blinked at him in surprise, giving a hesitant nod. “You—You know about him?”

“Of course,” Coran said, giving him a small, warm smile. “I was alive when he flooded the kingdom, was standing right beside the king as he decided to let him live.”

“You were alive for the war, then?” Lance asked, leaning forward eagerly. “You know what really happened back then?”

“I was a young lad, but yes. I was alive then, and I remember the war more vividly than I remember most other things.” Coran leaned back in his chair again, looking up towards the ceiling as if remembering. “It was a terrible thing, that war. I worked every day to stop it, but... there wasn’t much I could truly do. I was merely a royal advisor, you see, so I had no real influence over any decisions that were made. And the king, blessed be his soul… he wasn’t much for listening to reason. The dragons had angered him, made a fool of him, and he wanted to kill every last one of them. So, he did.”

“But he didn't,” Lance said, giving a small shake of his head. “He let one live. Why? He could have killed him just as easily as any of the others.”

“I don’t know for sure,” Coran said, shrugging his shoulders and letting out a small sigh. “But I have a pretty good guess. At first… when the last dragon first made himself known to us, the king was angry. He was furious that he had missed one, that he had let himself and his people celebrate when there was truly no celebration to be had. And then the dragon began to flood our cities, and the king became absolutely furious. He would walk around the castle each day and tell everyone he saw that as soon as the floods receded, as soon as was humanly possible, they were going back up the mountain to kill that dragon. But then the flood stopped a few days later, and his threats stopped around the same time—although I don’t think it had much to do with that. I think… the more he thought about it, the more he realized how powerful it made him feel to know he had taken everything from whatever dragon was left up there. Rather than kill every single one of them, he wanted to leave it to suffer, wanted to listen to it cry every day in the absence of its own kind. He wanted the dragon to be sad and afraid and alone and know for the rest of its life that the humans had won, and if it wasn’t careful then it would be next. And I think that—although you may know so better than me—the king got exactly what he wanted.”

“His name is Keith,” Lance said quietly, once the silence in the room had gone on so long it had started to feel oppressive. He wanted to say more but no other words came to him as he thought over Coran’s story in his head, feeling his throat tighten dangerously. He’d believed Keith’s story when he told it to him, of course he had, but... to have confirmation, to have another glimpse at how cruel the humans had been to him… it was another thing entirely.

“Keith,” Coran repeated, sitting forward in his chair again with a smile. “A lovely name, indeed. Now, tell me what you’re looking for in this secret archive, and I may be able to point you in the right direction.”

“I’m looking for information on other dragon clans nearby that Keith may be able to join,” Lance said, much less afraid now of telling Coran too much. He felt like he could trust him, like they both only wanted what was best for Keith, and it made the words come much easier. “He’s been alone up there for so long, and… I want him to feel like he has a family again, even if it isn’t quite the same.”

“You’re looking for the Map of Creation, then,” Coran said matter-of-factly, as if Lance would be able to confirm this.

“I suppose,” Lance said, giving a small shrug. “I just need something that can tell me where to find the nearest dragons. I think it’s pretty unlikely that Keith is the last one left in the whole entire world.” 

“Well, you’d be right about that,” Coran said, nodding. “As far as I understand it, dragon clans are regional. The humans may have killed off the dragons in this particular region, but there’s countless more out there in the unknown. It’s likely there are clans beyond our borders that have never even met a human before.” 

“How do you know all this?” Lance asked, more than a little in awe at getting answers to every one of the questions that had been haunting him for months on end. 

“Well, my boy, it just so happens that one of my  _ many _ job titles is curator of the very secret archive you’re trying to find.” There was a twinkle in Coran’s eye as he smiled at him, looking overly pleased with himself or the situation or the circumstances, or maybe even all of the above. “I’ve read through all the information in that archive more times than I can count.”

“You never told me about that,” Allura cut in, sounding offended. Lance jumped a little at the sound of her voice, almost having forgotten she was there. She’d been perfectly silent the entire time, which Lance figured was probably due to the large amount of new and surprising information being thrown around in front of her face. 

“Well, my dear, I’m really not supposed to,” Coran said. “It is called a secret archive for a reason, you know.”

“This place is a secret, too!” Allura huffed, narrowing her eyes at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “How is the archive any different?” 

“Your status gives you the clearance to know about the Recondite,” Coran explained easily. “That’s the reason they let you in here; not because you know me but because you’re at a high enough level to be allowed in. With the archive, however… there’s only three people allowed in there, and one of them is dead.”

“Wait,” Lance said, interrupting and turning to face Allura. “If you didn't know that he knew about the archive, then why did you bring me here?”

“Coran knows everything,” Allura said, waving him off. “I figured if anyone in the town knew what you needed to know, it would be him. And look at that, I was right.” 

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Coran said, clearing his throat pointedly, “there’s only three people allowed in the archive, and neither of you are on that list. So, I’m afraid I can’t let you in.” Lance felt his heart sink almost immedaitely, his chest tightening to the point of being painful as he processed his words. After all that, he wasn’t even going to let them in? He could have told them so at the very beginning! “However,” Coran continued, stopping his spiral before it could even really begin, “my name  _ is _ on that list. So I can get for you whatever it is you need.” 

Lance blew out a relieved breath, feeling every muscle in his body loosen. He’d been so worried that it was all going to stop here, that he was never going to find what he was looking for. But Coran was standing up and heading towards the door, looking like a man on a mission with the amount of speed and purpose he was putting into his steps. And Lance was more than happy to let him go, just... right after he asked him a question that had been bothering him for what felt like ages.

“Wait, Coran?” Lance asked, halting him in his steps on his way to the door. “I have a question.”

“Yes, my boy?” 

“Keith told me that the tomes in that archive had information about how life started, and stories that come directly from the gods that created everything. So if that’s true, then… why don’t humans know anything about them?”

Coran smiled at that, as if the answer—or maybe the question itself—was amusing to him. “Well, that’s an easy one. The church, which operates exactly as the early kings designed it, makes them money, gives them power. If the people knew the true origins of the universe, and knew that the kings had been lying to them for generations, it would cost them a great deal of things that they very much enjoy having. It would force them to give up a foothold, and force them to admit to themselves and everyone else that the kings haven’t been hand-picked by the gods, or imbued with divine favor. They’re just human, with as much right to rule as anyone else. But for the world to know the truth would be for them to lose the power they think they deserve. There’s really not much more to it than that.” 

When Lance didn't answer, too busy reeling at the realization that the kings were even more disgusting and dishonest than he’d previously thought, Coran began to leave the room again, giving them both a bright smile as he stepped back. “I’ll be right back, my friends. It shouldn’t be too long.” 

* * *

True to his word, Coran was back less than fifteen minutes later with a stack of three books in his hands. He sat on the desk in front of them and pulled his chair around to sit between them as they began their search, pouring through the books and looking for any information that seemed relevant to Lance’s quest. In the end they found two separate pages—one with a detailed map of the regions surrounding them and the other with a map of the major settlements in those regions and what kind of creatures had settled there. Using the two together, they were able to discern that the closest dragon clan was that of the Galra, settled near the human town of Daibazaal.

To Lance’s surprise, Coran assessed the pages quickly before carefully tearing them from the books, holding them out in Lance’s direction. At Lance’s look of surprised confusion, Coran took his hands and set the pages on his palms, curling his fingers around the edges and pushing them back towards his chest. “I’m sure no one else is going to need these. Take them.” 

“Are you sure?” Lance asked, furrowing his brow as he looked down at the pages, eyes tracing over the ink that was clearly fading with age. It went without saying that Coran was handing him pages straight out of their history, information that couldn’t be so easily regained once it was lost. 

“I’m sure,” Coran said, nodding. “The royal family has spent centuries keeping things like this hidden from the rest of us. I don’t think anyone will miss it if it’s gone.” 

Lance hesitated for another second before nodding, carefully folding up the pages and slipping them into his pocket. “Thank you.”

“We should probably be going,” Allura added, reaching out to grab Lance’s hand and tug him up from his chair. “Nyma and Rolo told us to make it quick. I don’t want them to come looking for us.”

“You’re probably right,” Coran said, standing and gathering the books back into his arms, giving them both a beaming smile. “Come back and visit me again if you ever get the chance. Until then, good luck with your task. I’m glad someone is finally doing something for that dragon.” 

“I can’t imagine not,” Lance said, shrugging him off. “He deserves so, so much.”

“Well, that’s awfully sweet of you!” Coran said. “You and this dragon must be very swell friends. I’m glad to see that he has someone who cares about him so.”

Before Lance could answer Allura was giggling, giving Coran a mischievous look. “You know that boyfriend I mentioned earlier?”she asked him, grinning as she pulled Lance towards the door. “That’s Keith. I’d say they’re a little more than just friends.”

Coran let out another hearty laugh at the information, bidding them farewell as they stepped outside. Lance shoved at Allura weakly as they made their way back outside, his cheeks red. “He didn't need to know that.”

Allura just laughed at him, looking completely unashamed of herself and her actions. “Aw, come on. He helped you out, the least you could do is tell him why you care so much.”

“He’s gonna judge me now! I wanted him to like me, you know.”

“Don’t be such a baby!” Allura laughed, shaking her head. “He’s not gonna judge you. Uncle Coran has got quite a few, uh,  _ interesting _ stories of his own. Besides, if he didn't like you he wouldn’t have helped you. I think you two could be great friends.” 

“Too bad I’m leaving,” Lance said, sighing and scuffing his foot against the plush carpet, no longer guilty about being in the presence of something so expensive after the conversation he and Coran had had. 

“Yeah,” Allura agreed, the smile gone from her face as quickly as it had appeared there. “Too bad.”

They were silent the rest of the way out, Lance staring down at the pattern of the carpet as Allura navigated their way through the halls. It somehow felt like an even longer journey on their way out, and by the time the large, wooden double doors were in sight, Lance was almost ready to cry with happiness. He didn't like the oppressive feeling the building gave him, and he wanted more than anything to be out of there and back out into the world he was actually  _ supposed  _ to be in. 

Lance, having been raised a gentleman, opened the door for Allura and let her leave first, taking a moment to himself to look around one last time as she did. He was just about to follow her out when he heard her voice, talking to someone or something that he couldn’t yet see. “Oh, well. Hello, there. How did you get in here?”

She was already down the stairs and on the path back towards the gate by the time Lance stepped outside after her, immediately looking down to where she was crouching in front of a very familiar wolf-dog pup. He was even bigger than the last time Lance had seen him but clearly not yet full grown, looking strong and healthy but entirely, entirely out of place. “Kosmo?” he mumbled in confusion, the pup’s head whipping up to look at him as he bounded over to circle his feet, barking and whining at him while jumping up to paw at his thighs. “What are you doing here, buddy?”

“You know this dog?” Allura asked as Lance reached down to pet over Kosmo’s fur, noticing with a frown that the pup was shaking, his tail tucked between his legs. 

“This is Keith’s pup,” Lance told her, looking up at her with his frown still plastered firmly on his face. “I bought him for Keith a few months ago. This is… Keith lives in the mountains Allura. Kosmo has never been down here before.” 

“Well,” Allura said primly while she stood back to her full height, a grim look on her face as Lance gathered Kosmo into his arms and tried to calm him. “This certainly can’t be good.”


	9. but this feels right so stay a sec—summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He winced in pain as the ropes were tightened, limiting his ability to move completely. Not that he felt like moving much, what with the waves of pain washing over him and threatening to make him sick. Lotor stepped close to him again as the guards finished their work, making sure to wrap his muzzle tightly and tie the rope behind his horns, keeping him from speaking or opening his mouth at all as the king grinned at him.
> 
> “There,” he said, sounding incredibly pleased with the way the past few minutes had gone. “That’s much better. Now, all we have to do is wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as u may have noticed i've decided to add on another chapter, because the plans i had for this one were quite lofty and i didn't get it done in time. so take this, the technically last chapter, and stay tuned for the epilogue next week!
> 
> also happy late thanksgiving to my fellow americans

Normally when Kosmo started barking, it meant all good things. 

It meant that Lance was back once again, and it made his heart flutter happily and his mating bite pulse with intoxicating warmth at the anticipation of seeing his mate again, smelling him, getting to be back in his arms. 

But this time, Kosmo’s bark wasn’t accompanied by the comforting and familiar smell of Lance’s scent, blowing in to him on the breeze. It wasn’t accompanied by a happy heart flutter or a pulse of warmth or any positive feelings at all. 

Because whoever was coming up Keith’s mountain—directly towards his cave like they knew exactly where they were going—wasn’t Lance. The cadence of their footsteps was all wrong, the pattern of their breathing entirely off, their scent sour and acrid in his nose. It wasn’t Lance. Keith didn’t  _ know _ who it was, and that scared him more than anything. 

Had Lance finally revealed his true intentions, after all this time? Had he finally sent someone after him, sent someone to kill him and get rid of him for good? Had he changed his mind about the mating bond and decided this was the best way to sever it? Or had this person followed Lance, learned about Keith in secret and waited for the right time to strike? Or, even worse, had this person found him all on their own, and already knew exactly where to find him? 

He hadn’t exactly kept his location a secret in the beginning, and any human who knew anything about the war likely knew that he hadn’t moved much. But he’d gone almost fifty-one blissfully quiet years without anyone coming after him—save for Lance, although he scarcely counted—so why now? What could they possibly want with him after all this time?

Kosmo’s barking came to a stop as the human did, lingering in the mouth of Keith’s cave as nothing more than a backlit figure. He knew the human probably couldn’t see him from this distance, curled up in his nest the way he was, but it clearly knew he was there. There was no way he was going to get himself out of this.

“Dragon!” the human cried a second later, its shrill voice echoing off the walls. Keith cringed at the sound, both in pain and fear, his heart beginning to beat quickly. This was really it, then. After everything he’d just gotten… “By order of the Altean Royal Guard, I command you to show yourself!”

Keith thought about not moving, staying hidden, trying to wait it out. But the more he thought about it, the more pointless it seemed. This human was almost certainly equipt with the knowledge and weapons necessary to kill him, and if he disobeyed their orders, they almost certainly would. As crazy as it seemed, there was almost more of a chance for him to survive if he got up and approached them, even if it only prolonged his inevitable fate for a few precious minutes. So he pushed himself up, beginning towards the mouth of his cave as he took deep breaths, trying to keep himself calm. The sound of Kosmo’s steady footsteps behind him helped, even though it made his heart clench in his chest. If Keith’s assumptions were correct, then Kosmo was about to watch him die. But he selfishly wanted him there, both to give Keith strength and to save him from spending the rest of his life waiting and wondering what happened to him, if he was ever coming back. 

This way, Kosmo would know exactly what had happened, and he would likely be spared by the human and shooed into the woods once the deed was done. Kosmo would get to go back to living the life he was  _ supposed _ to live, prancing in the woods far away from Keith’s cave, and he’d have the memory of Keith and their time together to do with as he pleased. 

And it hurt to think about, picturing Kosmo going on to live a life where, day by day, the memory of Keith grew fainter. But it hurt more to know that Lance would likely  _ never _ know what had happened, would come up to find him dead or would maybe never find him at all. It made his throat tighten as he finally came to a stop in front of the armored human that was staring at him intensely, a spear pressed into the rock at her side. 

“Human,” Keith greeted, tipping his head slightly as he kept his voice as level as he could. “What does the royal guard want with me?”

The human ran her eyes along his body in lieu of immediate answer, clearly surprised by his mostly human appearance. He’d almost forgotten he looked this way, being well used to spending most of his time in his human form these days. He thought about changing forms but decided against it, knowing there wasn’t much use. If anything, the closer to human he looked, the guiltier this human might feel in killing him, which was really as much victory as Keith could be afforded in this situation. 

She finally cleared her throat and looked back up at him, meeting his eyes steadily. “The King of Altea wishes to speak with you. You will follow me.”

“And if I don’t?” He didn’t mean to ask, didn’t mean to sound so challenging. He was just… surprised. He’d been so sure that this was it, that the day had finally come for him to die, but really… the king just sought audience with him? Why?

“You do not have a choice. The king instructed me to remind you that he has something very valuable to you in his possession.”

Keith wasn’t exactly sure what the king was referring to, considering he could have possession of any number of things he might think valuable to Keith after the war, but he nodded anyway. His curiosity was piqued, and there was no foreseeable danger to a little diplomatic meeting. It was far better than dying, that was for sure. 

So he and Kosmo followed the armored human as they started back down the mountain, leading silently. It was incredibly strange for him, walking away from home in broad daylight the way he was. Sure, he was in his human form, but it by no means meant he passed as one. Hs dragon features were still visible and obvious, and he was about to let himself be practically paraded downtown and shown about in front of the king. It made him uncomfortable, if he was being honest, the thought of so many eyes on him. It was strange enough to wrap his head around interacting with a human that wasn’t Lance, let alone processing the fact that he was about to be face to face with arguably the most important one, years upon years after his father had slaughtered his kind. 

That wasn’t what worried him the most, though. It was that he couldn’t for the life of him figure out a reason why the king might want to speak with him, especially after all this time. It was suspicious in more ways than one, and had him glancing at the guard escorting him, wondering what she knew. Even if it wasn’t much, it was better than going in completely blind, right? Hell, he didn’t even know where she was taking him. She’d at least be able to tell him that, right?”

“Um… human?” he asked quietly, turning his head to peer over at her as they walked. She looked back and sneered at him, looking annoyed with the fact that he’d spoken up. 

“My name is Acxa,” she snapped. “What do you want?” 

“Acxa,” Keith repeated, wrinkling his nose as the syllables formed in his mouth. Her name felt much stranger to say than Lance’s, didn’t fall off his tongue in quite the same way, and he didn’t like it. “I was wondering if you could tell me why the king wishes to see me?”

“He didn’t disclose such information to me,” she said dismissively. “I was simply tasked with retrieving you.”

“Where are we going, then?” Keith pushed, trying to get at least one good answer from her. “Surely you can tell me that. We’re not going into town, are we?” He asked the question less out of concern and more out of curiosity, the events taking place getting stranger and stranger. Because Keith had lived on this mountain his entire life, and he knew the path to the human village below. But Acxa was taking him in a different direction completely, away from the looming human houses and towards the line of trees below them. 

“I was told to meet his Majesty outside the gates to the Recondite,” Acxa answered shortly. “We’ll be taking a path through the forest to avoid being seen.”

“The Recondite?” Keith blurted, confused. He’d never heard of such a place before. “What happens there?”

“There, the king will speak with you,” Acxa told him, her patience with the conversation having clearly run out. “And once the conversation is through, I will escort you back.”

Keith didn’t ask anything else after that, thinking over what little information he’d been able to gather from her. It calmed him at least a little bit to know that they wouldn’t be going through town, which would thankfully minimize his interaction with more humans. The last thing he wanted was to be paraded around in front of everyone, especially when he really had no idea what was going on. The last thing he’d  _ ever _ expected to happen to him was this, and yet here he was, following a grumpy human through the woods on the way to who knew what. 

If he were smarter, he might have been more afraid of what was to come. It was very unlikely that anything good was going to come from the interaction ahead, especially if the king felt he had enough leverage to threaten him into appearing. But his curiosity was getting the best of him, keeping him distracted from the lingering fear stirring in his gut. There was still a good chance he was going to die today, but something interesting might happen beyond that, and that was really a more exciting end than he’d ever allowed himself to imagine in the past. 

So sure, he was afraid. He was absolutely terrified. He’d never met a human king, didn't know how to act in front of one. He didn't know what he wanted from him, didn't know what was going to happen to him. There were so many things he didn't know about this situation that it made his head spin. But he couldn’t help but hold onto some hope that if he hadn’t died yet, he wasn’t going to die at all. 

Acxa moved closer to his side and took hold of his arm as the trail they were following began to widen, the trees on either side of them thinning out before they eventually found themselves at the edge of a clearing. As soon as they stepped out into it, Kosmos was darting from Keith’s side and running over to the barely visible head of another trail, his nose to the ground as he began pacing along the path with slow, careful steps. He was tracking something, that much was obvious after the amount of hunting trips they’d taken together, but Keith didn't have time to wonder what it was as Acxa yanked quite harshly at his arm, directing his attention forward once again.

He resisted the urge to glare at her and rub his arm, reluctantly looking away from Kosmo and nearly stopping in his tracks as he looked around for the first time since entering the clearing. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of the giant, stone building that stood in front of them, surrounded by a tall, imposing fence and a gate that was being guarded by two stone-faced, armored humans that paid the two of them absolutely no mind. They didn't  _ need _ to pay them any mind, because a little farther in front of the fence stood a figure that made Keith’s heart stutter in his chest, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting from a human leader, but it wasn’t this. The king in front of him was tall, skinny, almost deceptively weak-looking. And maybe he was weak. Who said a king had to be physically strong? As long as they could tell others what to do and enjoy a lavish lifestyle from the safety of their own home, wasn’t that enough? 

With that slight change in mindset, it was easy enough to recognize this human as a king. His clothes, while not overly grand, were studded with sparkling gems and shiny stones that shone in the light as he shifted, almost as bright as the sly smile on his face. His crown sat atop a head of long, silky silver hair that trailed down to his thighs, looking almost as if it wasn’t even real. And his skin, stretched over his bony frame with a light, creamy color that was almost so pale it was translucent, looked far too delicate to be touched as the two of them stopped in front of him and he lifted his hand in greeting, his eyes twinkling as he looked down at them. 

“King Lotor,” Acxa greeted, bowing to him from where she stood. “Here he is, just as you requested.”

“Thank you, General Acxa.” King Lotor smiled at her, clearly dismissing her before turning to Keith, staring down at him intensely. Keith’s breath caught in his throat at the full force of his attention, an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling crawling just beneath his skin. He wasn’t safe here, he knew he wasn’t, but there was something about the king’s smile that was begging him to trust him, begging him to forget all about the sense of danger that was scratching at the back of his neck. “Welcome, dragon, to the Recondite. Do you have a name?”

“Keith,” he answered, swallowing thickly and resisting the urge to glance around him, looking for a threat that had gone unnoticed so far. He could feel it, could sense it, could almost  _ taste _ it the feeling was so strong. There was tension, anticipation, impatience, all around them. The ground was practically  _ trembling _ with excitement, and Keith could feel it. He just couldn’t… he couldn’t focus on it, not with the king staring down at him the way he was. 

“That’s quite a human sounding name,” the king said, clasping his hands behind his back as he leaned forward, pushing his face in close to Keith’s. “Is that your birth name, dragon?” 

“No,” Keith said, giving a small shake of his head as he shoved down the part of his brain that was screaming at him to step back, to run, to save himself while he still could. He didn't step back, didn't run, didn't save himself. He stayed frozen in place, kept his eyes locked on the king’s as his heart battered against his chest.

“Tell me your real name, then.” It wasn’t a request, but the lilt of his soft, smooth voice made it seem so. It wasn’t a request and still Keith hesitated, trying to think of what the king could possibly need his real name for. “We don’t need the formalities, you and I,” he continued at Keith’s obvious pause, leaning back and bringing a hand up to rest on Keith’s shoulder. “You can call me Lotor, and I can call you... whatever it is you’re truly named. And then we can talk, friend to friend.” 

“Kietoran,” Keith blurted, his hands trembling where they hung at his sides. He sent a frenzied glance around him, looking for Kosmo in an attempt both to calm himself and to make sure he was safe. But he couldn’t find him, and his concentration was quickly shattered by Lotor stepping in so close that they were practically chest to chest, a wave of his sickeningly sweet scent washing over him and making him gag. 

“Kietoran,” the king smiled, looking more sinister than friendly as he leaned close to his face again, the hand on his shoulder giving a harsh squeeze. “I’m truly sorry to have to do this.”

“Do what?” Keith asked dumbly, eyes widening in panic as Lotor’s hands came up to grip his cheeks, keeping his head from moving and looking as the sound of shuffling and clanking started from all around them, almost deafening in Keith’s ears as it mixed with the roaring of his blood. And Lotor just kept smiling at him through it all, holding him tight and ensuring he couldn’t see anything outside of his smooth flawless features as he let out a tinkling laugh. 

“I have to make sure you don’t run away, you understand,” Lotor said, letting go of his face as suddenly as he had grabbed it and taking a step back. Keith whipped his head around as soon as he was able, breath starting to come quicker as he saw the circle of armed guards that now surrounded him, holding lengths of rope in their hands. “I can’t have you getting away before the last members of our little party arrive.”

Keith froze in place, his fear paralyzing him for a handful of agonizing seconds before his fight or flight reflexes kicked in and urged him into action. He was changing forms before he’d even really made the conscious decision to do so, his wings snapping out into position as his knees bent, preparing him for take off. But the sound of Kosmo’s bark gave him pause, and the sudden burst of bright, searing pain that exploded from his right side was enough to stop him completely. 

His vision swam as the pain dug its sharp claws into his mind, the feeling of it enough to take his breath away as he lost his footing and tipped over, hitting the ground with a loud thud. He laid still for a few seconds before fighting to open his eyes and lift his head just enough to evaluate his wound, a wave of dizziness washing over him as he saw the shaft of a spear that was now protruding from his flesh, wedged into his side just behind his front leg. He really was going to die, then. After all this, after the stupid hope he’d allowed himself to have, he was going to bleed out on the front lawn of a secret royal property as the king watched on with a sick grin, the guards that had once formed a wide circle around him closing in and tossing the ropes over his prone form, tying him down. 

He winced in pain as the ropes were tightened, limiting his ability to move completely. Not that he felt like moving much, what with the waves of pain washing over him and threatening to make him sick. Lotor stepped close to him again as the guards finished their work, making sure to wrap his muzzle tightly and tie the rope behind his horns, keeping him from speaking or opening his mouth at all as the king grinned at him.

“There,” he said, sounding incredibly pleased with the way the past few minutes had gone. “That’s much better. Now, all we have to do is wait.”

* * *

“What do we do, Allura?” Lance asked, biting at his bottom lip as he stroked over Kosmo’s fur and looked around worriedly. Nothing around them on this side of the gate looked any different than it had before, other than Kosmo’s sudden appearance at the bottom of the steps and the disturbed dirt at the bottom of the fence where Kosmo had clearly dug his way under. “I’m worried about him. What if something happened?”

“Well,” Allura said, giving their surroundings a cursory glance before moving over to him, urging him up onto his feet. “We should probably get somewhere safe and see if we can figure out what’s going on. Maybe see if we can get into contact with your dragon, if possible.”

“You mean… go up the mountain?” Lance asked, confused. “That’s the only way I’d be able to talk to him.” 

“If that’s what it takes, then yes.” Allura nodded. 

“Okay,” Lance said after a second, giving a firm nod as he patted Kosmo’s head and started back towards the gate, Allura following close behind. And as they followed the path back down, Lance couldn’t help but notice that the only sounds he could hear were the sounds that the three of them were making—the dull tap of their shoes against the stone, the rhythmic lull of Kosmo’s panting, the soft swish of Allura’s long hair brushing against her back as she moved. He hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but the abruptness of the silence he was met with now forced him to remember all the things they’d been able to hear on their way in, like the birds chirping in the trees and the various critters roaming around in the underbrush, unthreatened and unafraid to make themselves known. But now… 

Lance would be the first to admit that he didn’t know much about the forests, but Keith had taken him along on a hunting trip or two and had taught him first and foremost how to follow a trail, so he had a pretty good idea of what it meant when the wildlife that had been active and present less than an hour earlier was suddenly completely silent. And added to the uneasiness Lance had felt his entire time here and the sudden appearance of Kosmo at the steps, it didn’t exactly bode well for them. Because, as Lance had been taught, the only thing that could settle and silence the forest was the presence of a predator. 

Lance drew in a sharp breath and held out an arm in front of Allura, stopping them both in their tracks. Kosmo started whining at him as soon as they stopped moving, dancing around his feet and nosing at his legs, but Lance ignored him in favor of grabbing Allura’s shoulders, meeting her look of surprise with one of concern. “Allura… I think something’s waiting for us out there.” 

“You… what?” she asked, furrowing her brow at him. “Why do you think that? No one knows we’re here.”

“Listen,” Lance told her, letting go of her with one hand to gesture around them, trying to keep his voice low. “There’s no other sounds to be heard besides the ones we’re making, and earlier when we came in we could hear all sorts of things coming from inside the forest. That’s weird, right?”

“There’s got to be a logical explanation for that, Lance,” Allura said, shaking her head at him. “It doesn’t mean we’re about to be ambushed.” 

“But it could! Think about it, Allura, really think about it. Why else would the forest be  _ completely _ silent, if not because there’s something right outside that’s scaring everything in it?” 

"Suppose you're right, Lance," Allura said, sighing at him. "What do you propose we do about it? There's only one way out of here, and we can't stay here forever. Even if there is something waiting for us out there, we have to go."

"But it could be bad," Lance said quietly, almost petulantly considering he knew she was right. "It could be  _ dangerous." _

"You're right," she said, offering him a small, reassuring smile as she nodded. "But clearly someone knows we're here, right? So if they're looking for us and we never come out, who's to say that'll stop them from coming in?" 

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Lanc mumbled, letting his hands drop from her shoulders as he let out a sigh.

“Well, look at this way,” Allura said, clearly trying to reassure him again with a different tactic. “If we meet them outside instead of them meeting us inside, there’s a far better chance someone in the village will hear us scream.” 

“You’re horrible at this reassurance thing,” Lance huffed, giving her a harmless glare before turning back around and starting towards the gate again. Kosmo, who’d given up trying to get Lance moving after being ignored, let out a small yip of excitement before quickly quieting himself, almost as if he was afraid to make too much noise. See? Something weird was going on! Kosmo had never been afraid to bark a single day that Lance had known him! But, even knowing that, Allura was right. There was only one way out of this, and the closer to the rest of humanity this confrontation could happen, the better. 

So Lance didn’t hesitate to push the gate open when they were finally close enough, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before stepping through and letting the other two follow. He was afraid to open his eyes, afraid to see who was there, and Allura’s gasp of surprise from behind his shoulder sure wasn’t helping. But the sound of a vaguely familiar but at the same time completely unrecognizable voice ringing out through the air was enough to finally compel him, his eyes flying open to find a man standing there—much closer than he was expecting—a beaming smile on his face as he clasped his hands in front of him.

“Ah, Lance! Allura! So nice of you to finally join us.” His voice was so light, so soft, so beautiful sounding in the absolute silence that surrounded them. It was unlike anything Lance had ever heard, although he had the distinct impression that he’d heard it somewhere before. But he couldn’t for the life of him remember where, and he couldn’t bring himself to utter a single word as he and the stranger stared each other down, the silence stretching on and on and on between them. 

The man was tall and slight, his obviously expensive clothes hugging his frame tightly in a way that accentuated the length of his limbs and the hidden strength within them. His long, silvery hair only served to make him look even taller, the crown—the fucking crown, of course! He knew who this was, why that voice was so damn familiar. If only it wasn’t the last thing about the man, or, the _ king,  _ that he had noticed—nestled atop the waterfall of silvery strands adding a few more inches. And it was clear that he was waiting for something, which would probably—oh, right. A response. Neither him or Allura had said anything to him yet. 

The king raised an eyebrow at them, his smile melting into a smirk that was more controlled and amused than before. “Well? Aren’t you going to say something?  _ Bow _ at the very least?”

And right, of course, he was the king and Lance should be bowing to him, should be saying something, coming up with words to say—but something the king had said before was sticking in Lance’s brain, refusing to let him think about anything else. And it was probably nothing, a simple slip of the tongue or mistake made without thinking, but the king had said—

“Us?” Lance blurted out suddenly, equally as surprised by his own outburst as the king appeared to be. But he had said us, had said  _ nice of you to join us, _ and the king was the only one Lance had noticed so far. Even the guards from before seemed to have disappeared. So who was he talking about? Was this about to turn into some kind of ambush?

The king took a second to process his words before his face lit up again, into that same bright smile from before. “Oh, yes! Excuse me, I’m afraid I’ve been quite rude. I haven’t even introduced you to our other guest! Although, Lance, I’m sure the two of you don’t need much of an introduction.” And then he stepped to the side and Lance’s eyes fell to figure that laid on the ground a good distance behind him, a form he hadn’t seen in its full glory in quite some time. Lance felt like his brain had practically slowed to a stop as he took in the details, his eyes trailing over the ropes first before noticing the pain expression on his face and jumping around frantically in search of the reason, eventually landing on the spear that stuck out of his side and the puddle of blood that was slowly but surely forming beneath him. Keith tried to move at the sight of Lance, clearly trying to get up and get closer to him, but he stopped almost as soon as he started, a soft whimper leaving his throat as a fresh wave of blood spurted from his wound, widening the pool.

Lance stared at the blood for a long time, grief and anger and so many unnamed emotions welling up and mixing around inside him, making his hands shake where they were curled up in fists at his sides. It all made sense now, the silent forest and the appearance of Kosmo and the bad, bad feeling he’d been having this entire time. The king had somehow brought Keith and all the way down the mountain and left him here, injured and tied up in front of the gate to the secret royal facility where Lance just so happened to be, collecting information on how to get the two of them away from here. It was ironic, and it was fucking cruel, the timing of it and the thought that the kings of his kingdom would never let Keith catch a fucking break. And the knowledge that the king was playing a game with Keith’s life, had left him here to bleed freely while waiting for Lance and Allura to arrive, having no way to truly know when they’d appear—it made Lance see red. Because Keith was still alive, sure, but for how much longer? How could the king possibly know he still would be?

He didn’t know how long had passed before one of them finally moved, Allura standing at his side one second before suddenly rushing towards Keith’s prone form the next, trying to make it to his side. The king’s laughter rang out around them as he stepped in front of her and shoved her backwards, almost forceful enough to knock her off her feet. “Allura, Allura,” the king tsked, taking a step closer to them with a slimy grin on his face. “You’ve always been so foolish, haven’t you? Still haven’t learned any of the lessons I’ve so  _ graciously _ been trying to teach you.” He let out a sigh, shaking his head. “No matter. I’ll make it quite simple for you. We’re going to talk first, and then our time here will be done and you will be able to do as you wish. How does that sound?”

“What do you want from us?” Lance asked, taking his own step closer to the king and urging Allura behind him again. He didn’t know the nature of their past interactions, but Lance didn’t like the way he was talking to her, the way he was staring her down as if he knew everything about her. 

“I don’t want anything from Allura, if that’s what you’re worried about,” the king said, laughing again. “I trust that she’ll take this as her final warning, and won’t find herself in anymore trouble after this.”

“Then what do you want from  _ us?” _ Lance sneered, losing his patience as he gestured between himself and Keith, whose eyes were lidded, his body more lax than the last time Lance had looked at it. Panic flashed in his chest at the sight, his hands trembling as he tried to keep himself calm. Keith couldn’t die, not like this. Lance wouldn’t fucking let him, no matter what he had to do.

“Ah,” the king said, clasping his hands behind his back casually, as if he’d forgotten there was someone bleeding out behind him. “I’ll make this quick. I understand that time may be of the essence.” He allowed himself a small, pleased grin before continuing, pacing back and forth in front of them. “What I want is simple. I want to run my kingdom, and I want to do it in the way that I please.” 

“What does that have to do with us?” Lance interrupted, impatient. “We haven’t done anything to interfere with that.”

“You’re right, you haven’t. Not yet, anyway,” the king said, pausing his pacing to face Lance again. “However, you know too much. You’ve learned too many secrets that the royal family has been trying to hide since the beginning, and that makes you a threat. And as a conscious and responsible leader, I can’t possibly allow a threat to persist within my kingdom. Surely, you must understand.” 

“What are you trying to say?” Lance asked, his impatience diminishing in the face of the fear that overtook him. From what he’d observed of the king so far, he knew this could go anywhere. He seemed heartless, completely unconcerned with whether people lived or died as long as he got what he wanted out of it, and that scared Lance more than anything. 

“Well, as you may know, there’s only one way to truly rid yourself of a threat,” the king told him, grinning as Lance’s blood ran cold. “But I’m feeling a little generous, so I’ll strike you a deal.”

“And what’s that?” Lance asked, glad when his voice came out strong and steady, not wavering in the way he thought it might. 

“I’ll give you a choice,” he said, stepping to the side so Keith’s prone form was solidly within Lance’s line of sight. “Either I kill you, or I kill your dragon. Killing you would be ideal, of course, but I trust the death of your beloved dragon would be enough to keep you quiet, especially since he’s not the only person precious to you that I could take. So, what’ll it be? You, or him?”

Lance had been raised to be kind, to be patient, to always see the best in others no matter what they did. He was raised to be a pacifist, to use words before actions, to step out of bad situations instead of worsening them. He’d never before felt the urge to  _ hurt _ someone like he wanted to hurt the king in that moment. It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t fucking fair that they’d taken  _ everything _ from Keith, and now they’d given Lance the choice to either take another thing he loved from him or take his  _ life. _ It wasn’t even that Lance feared dying, he just didn’t want to be another person who had hurt Keith, who’d taken his happiness from him and left him with nothing, back at square one. Keith didn’t deserve that. But what choice did he have? What choice was the  _ right _ one? Would Keith rather die or see Lance do the same? Lance knew the answer to that, of course he did, because his answer was the same for him. As much as they both valued their own lives, they didn’t want to see the other die. They’d do  _ anything _ to make sure it didn’t happen. 

Just… there had to be another way. A way they could  _ both _ make it out of here alive.

“What about a third option?” Lance said, looking up to meet the king’s eyes.

“Oh, we’ve got ourselves a gambler.” The king smiled, chuckling to himself. “Alright, I like your bravery. What would this third option be?”

“Banishment,” Lance said, watching as the king’s eyebrows raised in surprise. His eyes flitted over to Keith as he started to struggle where he was tied up on the ground, his eyes meeting Lance’s as he tried to shake his head, seemingly aware of the direction Lance was going. And he understood Keith’s concern, he really did, but that was already the plan, wasn’t it? Find information about the nearest dragons, convince Keith to leave, never come back. The only differences were those based on the circumstances, ones that made the stakes a little more set in stone. If he went through with this, then he wouldn’t be  _ able _ to come back, even if he wanted to. But that didn’t mean he’d never be able to see his family again. 

“If you kill me, which you know would be my second choice, my family will know, and they’ll bother you about it for the rest of time. They’ll go digging in places they shouldn’t and find things out that they shouldn’t know, and then you’ll have to kill all of them and you’ll have a mess on your hands. And as much as you might like to kill them, it will put you in a dangerous position, which I’m sure you’d rather avoid. But if you banish us, send us both away, then I can go home tonight and tell my family I’m leaving of my own free will, and they won’t be suspicious or question anything about my sudden absence.”

The king was silent for a long moment, seemingly thinking it over before suddenly turning to face Keith, taking quick steps in his direction. Lance stiffened as he approached him but didn’t make any moves to interfere, readying himself to step in if he needed to. “Kietoran,” the king said, Lance watching on in surprise as Keith’s eyes snapped open immediately, trained on the king closely. “By dawn tomorrow, you and your human Lance will be gone from this kingdom, never to return again. If either of you are caught within Altean perimeters, you will be killed on sight.” 

And Keith nodded, accepted the information without a fight, his eyes going lidded again as the king stood up and made his way back to Lance, smiling at him. “There. Your choice has been made, and the instructions have been given. If you’re both quite satisfied, I think we’re done here.”

Lance gave a silent nod, itching to move past him and run to Keith’s side, to care for his wound. He didn’t know how bad it was, didn’t know how much time he had to save him, and he just wanted all of this to be done. The king accepted his nod with that same disgustingly bright smile, nodding back before turning on his heel and walking past Keith, taking the same trail he and Allura had taken on arrival and disappearing into the trees.

As soon as he was gone Lance was rushing to Keith’s side, pulling his shirt over his head and pressing it against the wound tightly, applying pressure. He could feel Keith wince beneath him and mumbled a soft apology, somewhat relieved to see the slow seep of blood leaking from Keith’s wound, much less than it had been before. Once he had a better understanding of what they were dealing with, the absurdity of the past hour hit him and his head whipped up to find Allura, a hysterical giggle falling from his lips. She was on Keith’s other side working at the ropes, untying them and pulling them free from Keith’s scales, and met his eyes as he looked at her over Keith’s back. “I can’t believe that fucking worked.”

Allura let out a laugh that seemed like an accident, a hand coming up to cover her mouth as she tugged a few more ropes away from Keith and onto the ground beside her. “Me, neither. But I’m really glad it did.”

“Me, too,” Lance said, the small smile that had been stretched across his lips slowly fading. “Just… what are we gonna do now? We can’t take him through town like this, but we have to get to my house somehow. I have to talk to my family and gather supplies and make a plan and patch him up as good as I can, all before dawn.”

“We take him through the woods,” she answered, not looking up from her work. “There are trails all over, leading from different places in town to here. We can get to your house that way.”

Lance nodded, glancing around quickly before holding his hand out to Allura. “Give me some of that rope.” She handed him a few pieces as she cleared Keith of the rest, watching in confusion as Lance tossed the ropes over Keith’s back, the ends landing on the ground beside her legs. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, brow furrowed.

“Come hold this,” he told her, ignoring her question as she stood and took his place holding the shirt to Keith’s wound, pressing tightly. Lance moved to take Keith’s head in his lap once his hands were free, cradling his face gently as he looked into his eyes. “Keith, baby. How’re you feeling?”

Keith’s jaw flexed in his hands before he spoke, a small smile curving his lips. “Bad.”

Lance couldn’t help but snort at that, smiling back. “How bad? Can you stand?”

“I think so,” Keith said, closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath before pushing himself to his feet with a groan.

“Good,” Lance encouraged, pressing a quick kiss to his snout before moving to grab the ends of rope he’d tossed over his back earlier, bringing them under Keith’s belly to meet the other ends dangling by his wound. Allura continued to hold the shirt as Lance tied the ropes over it, tying the knots tight enough to hold the shirt in place but loose enough to keep from pulling at his wound and making it worse. 

“You think you can walk, too?” Lance asked him once he was done, moving back to his front as Keith tossed and shook his head, clearly trying to shake off the pain. 

“I think so,” Keith repeated after a second, taking a tentative step forward. “It’s not too bad.”

“Let me know if that changes, okay?” Lance told him, reaching out to put his hand against his side comfortingly. “We can always stop and take a break.”

“I will,” Keith promised, bringing his head down to carefully nuzzle into Lance’s chest. Lance laughed and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head, running his hands over his horns before letting him go, turning to face Allura.

“Alright, Allura. Lead the way.”

* * *

“How’d it go?” Keith asked, his voice echoing against the walls in a way that was different but so familiar. It made Lance ache, made him long for the simpler times when it was just him and Keith up in Keith’s cave (his cave which he would never get to go back to or take anything from, which made Lance wince guiltily), spending time together, falling in love. Now they were here, Keith in full dragon form and propped up against the far wall of Lance’s family barn, wound dressed and body covered in a canvas sheet and partially obstructed by hay bales, just in case someone came in. But his head was sticking out from under the sheet as Lance entered, his brightly glowing eyes peering at him in the dark, inquiring. 

Lance stayed quiet as he lit the lanterns around them, trying to find the right words to explain what he’d just gone through. It had gone better than expected, honestly, but that wasn’t to say it had gone  _ well. _ It was still painful and gut-wrenching and so,  _ so  _ hard, but it had to be done. There was no going back now. 

He’d told his family he was leaving, for some indefinite amount of time, so he could travel. He wanted to see the ocean, he said, and he was tired of being stuck here. And he wasn’t lying, but he couldn’t really tell them the truth. He answered their questions as best he could, their confused and betrayed words of  _ why now _ and  _ how long _ and  _ what about us. _ It was so hard he almost couldn’t do it, almost broke down and told them the everything, but he didn’t. He  _ couldn’t, _ because then he’d have a mess on his hand that he didn’t know how to clean up. So he told his family he was leaving to see the ocean and gathered up all the supplies he thought he’d need, and now he was back here, faced with his injured mate who’d asked Lance for nothing and had ended up getting everything Lance knew how to give. 

“It went okay,” Lance said eventually, letting out a sigh. He knew he wasn’t fooling anyone, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want to relive the looks on their faces when he’d uttered the words  _ I’m leaving. _ “They took it better than I thought, especially after I told them I’d write back to them. They’re expecting postcards.”

“If I was strong enough to change forms right now, I’d give you a hug,” Keith said, his voice a soft murmur that comforted Lance more than it probably should have. 

“I know you would,” Lance said, giving him a smile as he moved closer, settling next to him on the floor. Kosmo let out a snore from where he was curled up beside Keith, leaning into his side. Lance reached out to pet him, taking comfort in the feeling of his soft fur beneath his fingertips. He was leaving his family behind, sure, but… he was also taking it with him. He’d found a family of his own in the dragon who was looking at him in concern as if Lance saying goodbye for now but not forever was a bigger sacrifice than any Keith had been forced to make, and in the sleeping wolf-pup who was almost fully grown but just as playful and curious as the day Lance had bought him. As much as it hurt him to do it, saying goodbye to his family was just him moving on to the next stage of his life. He could see his family again, could have them meet him by the ocean someday far from now, and it would be okay. So he told Keith as much, made sure he knew that this was something Lance  _ wanted  _ to do, not something he felt he had to do. It wasn’t the ideal situation, no. Lance knew already that he’d miss his family so much, that there wouldn’t be a day that passed where he didn’t think of them and miss them with every ounce of his being. 

But Lance had been waiting years and years and years for an adventure, and now he finally had one. In the morning the three of them would set off into the unknown, using Lance’s maps as a guide to their next location, and Lance was sure that no matter where they went, no matter what they came across, they’d find something wonderful. Because, after all, what was better than a life where they were happy? Lance couldn’t think of a damn thing. 


	10. yeah you feel right so stay a sec—epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wouldn’t give any of it up, not for anything. He felt so free out here, so far away from everything he’d ever known. There were no expectations for him, no concrete plans for his future. There was no pressure for him to learn everything his father knew so he could take over one day, no brothers around to compete with, no mother to please. It was just him and the trees, Kosmo and Keith, and the knowledge that every day that passed brought them closer to finding another dragon clan for Keith to join.
> 
> But it looked like maybe the dragon clan had found them first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, here it is! the last ever chapter of hostage. i hope you guys have enjoyed! its been a lot of fun to write, and ive really appreciated all the kudos, comments, and support ive received from all of you. thank you so much for reading my fic, it means a lot to me! i'm not sure whats next, but ive got so many ideas left to write, so stay tuned for more in the future and go check out my other fics if you havent!

“Hey! Hunk, look at this!”

Lance jumped at the sound of a voice ringing out through the trees, whipping his head around to look for the source. He and Keith had separated a while ago—him and Kosmo staying behind to hunt for dinner while Lance went on ahead and found a place to camp for the night—so he knew it wasn’t Keith’s voice, not that it really sounded like it was anyway. This voice was much lighter than Keith’s, much higher pitched. And it was paired with the sound of something crashing through the trees, getting closer and closer to where Lance stood, frozen in confusion and slight panic. 

They’d been traveling for almost two weeks now, growing farther and farther away from their home with every step. It had taken Keith a few days to heal up his wound, so they’d started their journey with a slow, leisurely walk in the right direction that put them a little behind Coran’s proposed schedule. But really, Lance didn't really mind. There was no hurry for them to reach their destination, and every day they spent traveling was another day Lance got Keith all to himself. He learned as much about Keith as he did  _ from _ him, since much of their journey was through the woods and Keith didn't want to be the only one who knew how to survive in them. 

Keith was clearly in his element out in the wild. He looked so much happier romping through the trees than he ever did in his cave, and the first time Keith had been healed enough to go flying, Lance heard him laugh more than he ever had before, more than he even thought possible. It was absolutely breathtaking, living in the forest and seeing both Kosmo and Keith so happy to be there, seeing and experiencing things he’d never seen before. It was enough to make up for all the things he had to do now that he could have gone his entire life without ever doing, like shitting in a hole in the dirt or helping Keith skin and gut their dinner. It was a lot different than he was used to, but it was worth it.

Even if he hadn’t been able to bathe himself in going on a week now. 

He wouldn’t give any of it up, not for anything. He felt so free out here, so far away from everything he’d ever known. There were no expectations for him, no concrete plans for his future. There was no pressure for him to learn everything his father knew so he could take over one day, no brothers around to compete with, no mother to please. It was just him and the trees, Kosmo and Keith, and the knowledge that every day that passed brought them closer to finding another dragon clan for Keith to join.

But it looked like maybe the dragon clan had found them first.

The figure that Lance assumed the voice belonged to had burst out of the trees a few moments ago and was now staring Lance down as someone else, likely the person they’d called out for, followed behind them, making much more noise as they went than the person Lance was having a staring contest with. It was easy enough to tell that the person before him wasn’t a human. If the horns, unnaturally golden brown eyes and small, leathery looking wings weren’t enough to give it away, then the scales that covered much of their skin—much more than Keith ever had in his human form—certainly were. And the person that appeared out of the trees a few seconds later looked much the same, except that instead of shimmering emerald scales they had ones that were a deep yellow, almost bright enough shining in the sun that they hurt Lance’s eyes. 

The three of them stared and stared and stared until the green dragon stepped forward into Lance’s space, poking at his chest and cheeks with a careful, clawed finger. “They don’t normally get this close, Hunk,” they whispered, as if Lance couldn’t hear them, or couldn’t understand them. Lance struggled to keep himself from scoffing, letting the dragon squish his cheeks before they looked back over their shoulder to their companion. “Look at this! It’s just letting me touch it!”

“I can hear you, you know!” Lance finally huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as the dragon in front of him jumped back, clearly surprised. “I’m not an it! My name is Lance, thank you very much.”

Before Lance could blink, both dragons were in front of him and crowding into his space, awed looks on their faces. “Woah,” the yellow one said, peering intensely into Lance’s eyes. “It can understand us!”

“What did I just say?” Lance complained, his voice much whinier than he would have liked. “I’m a boy! A human boy! Whose name is Lance! And of  _ course _ I can understand you. You’re speaking English, after all.”

“Ah,” the green dragon said, a light dusting of red visible through the scales in their cheeks as they leaned back, giving Lance a little space. “Right. We’re sorry about that. Just… we’ve never met a human before. It’s so exciting!”

“You’ve never met a human before?” Lance asked, surprised. “Isn’t there a human village near here?”

“Yes,” the yellow one answered, nodding. “But the humans there are afraid of us. They don’t ever venture out into the woods this far, so only the ancients have ever met a real human before.”

“Well,” Lance said, digesting the information slowly. “Now you can say you’ve met one, too.”

“Mom’s never gonna believe this, Hunk,” the green one whispered excitedly, turning to their companion with wide eyes. “I can’t even believe it! Mom’s gonna flip! So is dad, and Matt, and Shiro… We have to get back, Hunk! We have to tell everyone!”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Lance said, holding up his hands in front of him. “Is your clan nearby here?”

“Yeah,” the yellow dragon, who Lance assumed was named Hunk, said, pointing off in the distance behind them. “It’s just up there.”

“Why do you want to know?” the green one asked suddenly, narrowing their eyes at him suspiciously. “Are you here to kill us or something? You don’t seem very afraid of us. I bet you’re gonna try to attack us!”

“What?” Lance asked, blinking at them. “No, no. I’m not going to attack you. I’m asking because I’ve got—” Just then a rustling sound in the trees to Lance’s left caught his attention, cutting off his words as the bushes parted and Kosmo came sprinting out of the underbrush, not hesitating before diving towards the green dragon and tackling her. Keith came flying out of the trees a second later, teeth bared as he tackled Hunk to the ground with a muted thud. The green dragon shrieked as she tried to push a snarling Kosmo off of her, the wolf dog almost big enough to smother her entirely. Hunk had simply covered his eyes with his hands and was making no attempt to free himself as Keith held him down, and Keith’s eyes were trained on Lance as his chest heaved, eyes a little wild. It was clear he’d ran all the way here from wherever he’d been, not stopping until he’d reached Lance, instincts likely taking him over.

“Lance! Are you okay? I could feel your fear through the bond, and I came as fast as I could. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” 

“Keith, darling,” Lance said, fixing him with a fondly exasperated look as he gestured towards the body he was currently pinning to the ground. “I was having a conversation. I’m  _ fine. _ They just surprised me, is all.” Keith’s eyes ran over him quickly, searching for injuries and checking to make sure Lance wasn’t lying. Once he was convinced, he turned to look at Hunk beneath him and yelped at what he saw, jumping off of him in shock. Lance called Kosmo off of the other one as they both sat up, the green dragon glaring thinly at Keith as Hunk looked at him in shock.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Hunk asked his companion, his eyes wide. “That’s a dragon, right?”

“He’s not from  _ our _ clan,” they muttered in response, still glaring. “He’s too… red. And I’ve never seen him before.”

“But he’s still a  _ dragon,” _ Hunk said. “Shiro’s gonna freak out when he sees this!”

“Are you crazy? He’s too aggressive to bring back to the clan!”

“Look, babe,” Lance said, grinning at Keith who was standing stock still, staring at the other dragons as if he wasn’t quite sure they were really there. “You’ve made a wonderful first impression.”

Keith snapped out of his reverie then, turning to glare at Lance petulantly. “It’s not my fault! I thought you were in danger!”

“You still attacked us!” the green dragon huffed, clearly not over it.

“I didn't attack you! I tackled you to protect my mate. There’s a difference!” 

The other two dragons paused at Keith’s words, their eyes widening as they looked between the two of them. Lance shifted uncomfortably under their stares, crossing his arms over his chest again as he stepped closer to Keith’s side. Keith’s tail came up to wrap around Lance’s waist and pull him in even closer, his chest puffing out in a clear gesture of posturing. 

“Well,” the green one said after a strangely long beat of silence, an intrigued look on their face. “This raises many more questions.”

“I think we should go talk to Shiro,” Hunk said, glancing between them again before pushing himself to his feet, holding out a hand to his companion to assist them in doing the same. 

“Who’s Shiro?” Lance asked, recognizing the name that had been thrown around a few times by now.

“He’s the leader of the clan,” Hunk answered, smiling at them warmly. “I’m sure he’d love to meet you! He’s super nice.”

“Who are  _ you _ guys?” Keith asked from beside Lance, his voice belying his discomfort with the situation although it was clear he was trying. This was the entire reason they were out here, anyway, and Keith seemed acutely aware of how likely he was to be in trouble with Lance if his antisocial tendencies messed this up for them. 

“I’m Hunk,” the yellow dragon answered, confirming Lance’s suspicions, “and this is Pidge. She’s a little feisty at times, but don’t let her scare you off. She’s harmless.”

“Well, as I told you earlier, I’m Lance,” he reminded them, smiling at the pouty glare on Pidge’s face that was so, so similar to the one he knew Keith was wearing as well. “This is Keith, and our wolf dog is named Kosmo, although he also responds to Pom-Pom.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Hunk said kindly, nudging Pidge in the side to get her to mumble a similar sentiment that Lance couldn’t make out. “Now, we should probably head to the clan. It’s time for us to be getting back, anyway. If we’re not back soon they’re gonna think we started another forest fire.”

“Another?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow as he took Keith’s hand and pulled him after the two dragons as they lead the way through the trees, Kosmo padding along at his side. 

“Everyone makes mistakes when they’re younger,” Pidge answered, giving a small shrug. “Fire breathing is a difficult skill to master in this terrain.” 

Lance supposed that was fair, giving a shrug of his own as he looked over his shoulder to smile at Keith. He looked unsure on the surface, but Lance could read him pretty well at this point. He could see the underlying excitement that he was trying to hide, could tell how nice it was for him to be around dragons again, even ones he had just met. It made something warm bubble up inside Lance’s chest, his own excitement rising at the thought of Keith finding a home again, finding somewhere where he belonged and could be happy. He knew it would probably take Keith a while to get used to, it would be true for  _ both _ of them, but it was worth it. Just seeing the small smile that threatened to break out across his lips, the light in his eyes that Lance had only seen a few times before… it made it all so fucking worth it. 

The sounds of activity reached them faster than Lance as expecting, Hunk and Pidge pausing at the edge of the trees and looking back at Keith. “You’ll have to transform back before we enter. We can mostly take human form whenever we want around here, but it’s kind of frowned upon when meeting with Shiro.”

Keith nodded silently and the three of them transformed almost simultaneously, leaving Lance to feel very small and very, very human. It still took his breath away every time he got to see Keith’s dragon form, and now he was staring at two more of them, seconds away from meeting even more. It was crazy to think about, the fact that they’d finally made it, the fact that there was a whole clan of dragons not even a month’s journey away from them and had been the whole time. 

He took a moment to inspect and compare the three dragons with him as they started to move forward again, rustling through the leaves. Keith looked the same as he had every other time, with the addition of the small but noticeable scar along the scales in his side. He was tall and lean and a deep, breathtaking red, as beautiful as it was intimidating. His eyes were bright and sharp but soft for Lance as they had always been, smiling at him as he reached out a paw and herded him closer as they grew nearer and nearer their destination. The scales of the green dragon, Pidge, looked exactly as they had in her human form, glistening beautifully in the mottled sunlight and almost blending in with the trees. Her dragon form was… much smaller than Lance had expected, although he supposed it made since considering her human form wasn’t that big, either. She helped take the intimidation factor of being surrounded by dragons down a notch, because she was barely bigger than Lance was as a human. The comparison between her and Hunk was actually kind of hilarious. His form, covered in beautiful golden scales that reminded Lance of Keith’s old hoard, towered over her, both taller and wider and wholly more scary. He was only a little bigger than Keith was, but the difference was noticeable.

It was enough to make him take another step closer to Keith, nervousness flaring up in his stomach as they passed through the trees and stepped out into a massive clearing. It took Lance a few long seconds to take in everything he could suddenly see, his mind reeling as his eyes jumped from place to place. He’d been expecting something closer to what he was used to—like, a cave—but this was nothing like that. This was something akin to a basic human village, backed up against a rock face and spread out through the clearing, bustling with activity. There were nests similar to the ones he’d seen in Keith’s cave scattered throughout the clearing and carved out beneath the canopy of the trees around the edges, and a large fire pit situated in the middle of the clearing, stacks of wood nearby. 

And there  _ was _ a cave, far on the other side of the clearing and built into the rock face, but it was smaller and more open than Keith’s cave had been, and it seemed to be more of a community gathering place than anything. 

There wasn’t an overwhelming amount of dragons—or nests, for that matter—but it was still more dragons than Lance had ever seen gathered in one place. It made him wonder how many dragons had been in Keith’s clan, if this was more or less than what he was used to, more or less than he’d lost. It made him wonder what Keith even  _ thought _ about all this. The bond between them had been strangely quiet since they’d met Hunk and Pidge in the woods, like a smooth, calm, motionless ocean in place of the usual roaring waves. 

But he couldn’t very well ask when his head was towering above Lance’s own, and he figured Keith probably needed more time to process it all, anyway. He’d always been a little slower to work through the things in his head, and Lance was more than happy to wait. He just hoped that Keith was okay, because he knew this was probably a lot. It was a lot for  _ him, _ and he wasn’t even having a pseudo-reunion with his own kind. 

Speaking of Keith’s own kind, Lance wasn’t sure he’d ever stop feeling like prey when being stared down by a dragon. He wasn’t  _ afraid _ of them so much as… acutely aware of their different positions of power. Dragons were natural born predators, top of the food chain, and Lance was, well… not that. And sure, the humans had killed the dragons in Keith’s clan with minimal loses, but there had been a lot more of them, and they actually possessed the knowledge needed to overcome them. For Lance—tiny, puny human Lance—he was practically powerless when it came to them. 

He could feel their stares as they moved across the clearing, could feel the unnerving way their gazes followed every footstep as they moved towards the cave. No one tried to stop them, or even moved to approach them, but they paused in their movements, in their tasks, in whatever they were doing and stared as they passed, the curiosity clear in the faces. And Lance couldn’t blame them—apparently they’d never met humans before, and Lance was accompanied by a wolf dog and a dragon they’d never seen before—but he also couldn’t help the way his skin crawled, his heart pounding in his chest as his body tried to convince him that he was in danger. 

Much to Lance’s dismay, the feeling didn't go away as they finally made their way across the clearing and stepped into the cave, approaching the largest dragon Lance had ever seen. His body spanned a decent amount of the cave wall, and Lance was sure that if he stood up, his horns would scrape against the top. He was easily twice the size of Keith, but... there was something about him that made the panic churning in Lance’s gut slowly settle and fade. Despite his size and his dark scales that would easily allow him to hide in the shadows like a prey’s worst nightmare, there was a kindness in his eyes and calmness in his powerful form that put Lance at ease. He had an ancient sort of energy about him that made Lance want to bow, which was a strange urge he’d never felt before. Being in his presence just made him feel like… he owed him every bit of reverence he could conjure up.

“Shiro, look! Look what we found!” Pidge yelled as they stopped in front of him, clearly excited to be bringing something so unfamiliar home. Shiro smiled as he looked over them, his eyes lingering on Keith before moving to Lance, seeming just as curious as every other dragon had been to see them. Shiro’s scales—which had appeared black at first glance, as if they were made from the shadows themselves—shimmered in the sunlight filtering through the entrance of the cave as he moved to adjust himself and greet them properly, and Lance could see that they were actually a beautiful, deep purple, one that mesmerized him as it winked and shone in the sun.

“Well, hello there. Is that a human I see, Pidge?” Shiro asked, his deep, soft voice filling the room around them. “And… another dragon?”

“Yes!” Pidge said, nodding rapidly. “I found them out in the woods, just a little ways from here.”

“He’s not from our clan,” Shiro said, his eyes trained back on Keith as he spoke. It was the most intimidating Lance had seen him appear so far, and even still the look was more calculating, questioning, as if he couldn’t quite decide what to make of him.

“I know,” Pidge said, nodding. “I figured I’d bring him back for you and mom and Matt to check out.”

“You make him sound like a specimen,” Shiro said, his voice fond but vaguely reprimanding. “Or a prisoner of some sort.”

“It’s just weird,” Pidge said, her voice taking on a distinctly whiny undertone. “And cool! I thought they’d have fun.”

Shiro chuckled softly, the sound low enough to vibrate through the ground beneath Lance’s feet. “Fine. Go get the rest of your family. We’ll wait for you here.”

“Wait! Before I go,” Pidge said, gesturing for Shiro to lean down. Shiro complied and Pidge reached up to whisper something to him, the small grin on her face as she pulled away in direct contrast to the look of shock on Shiro’s. 

“You think that’s why they’re here?” Shiro asked, looking between them with a look of clear surprise. Pidge shrugged in response before turning and sprinting form the cave, heading back out to retrieve her family. That left them with just Hunk and Shiro, and the energy in the room was at a much lower level now that she was gone. It was almost uncomfortable, the way the silence settled over them and stayed there, undisturbed. Shiro was just gazing at them, alternating between them but paying particularly close attention to Keith, which Lance figured was fair. It was probably strange to see a dragon from a different clan, especially if they didn't know about the other clans like Keith. It left Lance to wonder what Pidge had told Shiro about them, why he’d looked so surprised. He really hoped it wasn’t the tackling thing from earlier, because Lance didn't want them to think they were aggressive, or a danger to the clan. It wasn’t that Lance wasn’t willing to travel to the next closest clan if they got kicked out of this one, but it was definitely his preference to not make another trek through the woods. 

The silence in the room was getting kind of awkward now, Shiro’s attention fixed fully on Keith, any attempt to appear equally interested in Lance long since abandoned. Lance wasn’t sure what to do, because it was normally his job to break the silences between him and Keith, but it wasn’t just him and Keith anymore. Shiro was watching Keith and Keith was watching Shiro and Hunk was watching them watch each other, and Kosmo had settled onto the floor beside Lance’s feet and fallen asleep, which left Lance alone to glance between all of them, confused about what was happening and unsure of what he should do about it. 

The suffocating lack of noise between them was eventually and thankfully broken a few seconds later by the sound of footsteps echoing at the mouth of the cave, followed closely by multiple excited voices, talking amongst themselves as they approached. Lance turned to see that Pidge had returned, bringing with her three other dragons: one that was a little darker green than Pidge herself, one that was a beautiful bluish gray, and who looked almost identical to Pidge, really only differing in size and small details that Lance had to work to pick out. The bluish gray dragon was staring at Keith with a look of intense wonder, stars in her eyes as she took slow, careful steps towards him, almost as if afraid to scare him off. 

“An Altean!” the dragon, who Lance presumed to be Pidge’s mother, cried out in delight, her voice giving away how excited she was by the discovery. It was clear she wasn’t talking about Lance, even though he was considered an Altean as well. Lance was starting to think there was really no point in him even being there, since they were all clearly more interested in Keith and Keith hadn’t spoken to him or really even so much as  _ looked _ at him the entire time they’d been there. 

“Altean?” Pidge asked, still the smallest in the room by far—even with the addition of three other dragons—and therefore the easiest to pick out. “What’s that?”

“Well, just as we are of Galran heritage, this dragon is of Altean. He’s traveled quite a ways to be here.” She walked a slow circle around Keith, an almost intensely critical eye trained on him as she went. “Tell me, dragon, what is your name?”

“Dragon name or human name?” Keith asked after a moment, his voice a little rough around the edges from disuse. The mother dragon didn’t seem put off by the question, although Lance could see that most of the others in the room had scrunched up their snouts in confusion, glancing between the two of them curiously. 

“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” she told him, giving a dismissive shake of her head. “Whichever you’d rather be known by. As you may have noticed, our clan has certainly strayed a bit from traditional dragon naming, which I can admit is partially my fault.” 

“Keith, then,” he told her. “My name is Keith.”

“Keith,” she repeated with a smile, bringing her tail up for a strange gesture that Lance had never seen before but Keith didn’t hesitate to reciprocate, his tail coming up to meet hers before twining with it, the two of them holding the pose for a beat before letting go again. “And who is this that you’ve brought with you, Keith?”

“That’s my mate, Lance,” Keith said, dipping his head in his direction before flicking his tail at where Kosmo was still fast asleep on the floor. “And that’s Kosmo.”

“But they said he also responds to Pom-Pom,” Pidge cut in unhelpfully, clearly desperate to be involved in the conversation as she gestured towards Kosmo again.

“Ah, yes. That’s certainly good to know.” Her mother laughed, smiling at her. “Well, I’m Colleen. That’s my mate Sam and our son Matt,” she pointed with the tip of her tail to the larger, darker dragon first and before moving to the slighter one next to him, both of them nodding and offering them warm smiles as they were introduced, “and I’m assuming you’ve already met my daughter Pidge. She’s quite proud in having discovered the lot of you.”

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Keith said, his voice awkward and stilted. It was obvious he was out of his element here, for more reasons than one, but Lance could tell how much the sentiment that was usually tossed around so carelessly actually meant to him.

“It’s nice to meet you, as well,” Sam said, still smiling at them. “My mate has always had quite the soft spot for you Alteans. It’s wonderful to finally see what she’s always raved about.”

“How’d you know he was Altean?” Lance asked Colleen, trying to sound as polite as he could. It’s not that he didn’t want to stand there and watch everyone drool over the impossibility that was his boyfriend all day, just… didn’t they have other things to do? There was an insane amount of questions left to be asked and answered, and they hadn’t even  _ started _ beyond introductions yet. 

“Oh,” Colleen said, looking at him in surprise. “Well, that’s simple! Many years ago now, I used to be a human just like you. I didn’t hail from Altea, but I traveled all over the world and eventually ended up there, and it didn’t take much convincing for me to stay. I was there for many years, and I learned much during my time there. Altea is one of the only human settlements to have established a connection with a dragon clan, which made it incredibly easy for me to dedicate my time to studying the dragons and learning everything I could about them. I formed many close relationships with dragons in the Altean clan, and thanks to my studies of them, I’d be able to identify an Altean anywhere.”

Lance had trouble processing most of what she told them, his brain catching on  _ I used to be a human just like you _ and sticking, turning it over and over and over in his head. Keith took over questioning for him, leaning a bit closer to where Lance stood motionless at his side. “If you spent so long in Altea, then how did you end up here? And how did you, you know… find yourself able to transform?”

“My studies of the Altean clan could only go so deep. I’d studied a few clans before them, and in an effort to expand my knowledge as far as it would go, I was forced to move on to other clans. And once I discovered a clan with a dragon I fell in love with and a way to transform me from human to dragon to ensure we could be together, well. The rest is history,” she said, giving a little laugh. “But I’m sure you already knew that last part. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

She was met with absolute, crushing silence, both Lance and Keith’s brain apparently no longer working. Her smile faded the longer they went without answering, a look of deep concern taking its place. “Have I… misspoken, somehow?” Her words snapped Lance out of his reverie, his hands coming up in front of him as he rushed to reassure her. 

“No, no, it’s just… we weren’t aware of that before now. That’s not why we came.”

The room was silent once again, an almost identical look of confusion plastered across every Galran face in the room. “I thought for sure…” Colleen muttered to herself, beginning to pace in front of him and Keith as she looked between them, perplexed. 

“Why are you here, then?” Hunk asked after it became apparent that no one else was going to, the rest of the room still silent with shock or distrust or uncertainty. Pidge was looking at them as if they were going to attack again, even though they’d clearly made no move to do so since the initial misunderstanding. Shiro had yet to do or say anything beyond stare since he’d addressed Pidge, and it appeared now was no different. Sam was watching his mate pace back and forth, his face a mixture of concern and adoration, and Matt was watching both of them closely, looking as if he were trying to memorize every detail. 

The reaction wasn’t immediate, but Lance felt it as soon as it happened. Hunk’s question opened a floodgate in Keith, all those emotions he’d been hiding from Lance slamming into him with the force of a tidal wave, so strong that Lance could almost taste them. They were enough to stagger him on his feet, his breath catching in his throat as he was drowned in intense feelings of anger and fear and grief, pulsing in his chest so strongly it almost felt as if the emotions were his own. It was hard to think through them, hard to breathe through them, hard to focus on the question that had been asked when all he wanted to do was curl up with Keith and Kosmo somewhere and comfort his mate, take from him the pain he carried. 

But someone had to say something, the gazes around them expectant and curious, and no matter how strongly he was feeling them, the emotions weren’t  _ his. _ So he took a deep breath and shook his head a little in an attempt to clear it, sliding in closer to Keith as he spoke. “Colleen, how long have you been gone from Altea?”

“Well, it’s probably been three or four centuries by now. Why?”

“The Altean dragons are gone.”

“Gone?” she asked, blinking at him in confusion. “As in, they’ve moved? That’s quite strange... I’ve never known a dragon clan to move before, but I suppose it’s not entirely impossible—”

“They’re  _ gone,” _ Keith cut in, his voice threatening to crack with heavy emotion. “They haven’t moved, they’re  _ dead. _ All of them, except for me.” Silence once again filled the room, the horror clear on Colleen’s face as Keith’s words registered.

“They’re—how? How did this happen?”

“War,” Lance answered, Keith’s tail coming to wrap around his waist, holding onto him for support. “The humans killed them, slaughtered them all.”

“When? When was this?”

“It started a couple centuries ago,” Keith said, “and was finished half a century ago. The humans suffered minimal losses, but the dragons were wiped out.”

“So you’ve been alone since then? Completely clanless?” Colleen asked, looking terrified at the thought, as if she couldn’t even imagine doing the same.

“Yeah,” Lance said, nodding. “He was alone until I found him last fall.”

“How’d you find him?” Pidge asked from where she was sitting next to Hunk, looking incredibly invested in the story as it continued.

“After the war, the human kings completely erased any mention of the dragons or the war in the common archives,” Keith said. “The memory of the war died with the people who had fought in it. But folktales related to the war remained, and stories about me in particular were passed on from mother to child for years, and Lance decided to see if there was any merit in these stories and came up the mountain to find me.”

“Were you afraid of him?” Hunk asked, tilting his head at him.

“I was,” Keith said, nodding. “I thought that the humans had finally come to kill me, that my time had finally come to an end. But it was just him, a curious little human with the kindest little heart, and it didn't take long for that fear to fade.”

“He told you about the war, then?” Colleen asked, turning to face Lance.

“He mentioned it a few times when I came to see him, but he didn't explain it to me fully until I snuck into the royal archives and found the human scrolls that told of the war, and accused the dragons of the exact crimes the humans themselves had committed.”

“So then what happened?” Sam asked. “If you spent so long in Altea after the war, why have you left now?”

“He was afraid to leave, at first,” Lance said. “After I learned about the war, I wanted to visit him even more, wanted to try and improve his life in any way I could. I gifted him Kosmo and we spent time together and fell in love and became mates, and Keith lived only in his cave and the darkness of the forest at night when it was safe for him to go out and hunt. But I wanted him to be happier than that, wanted to know if he was truly the last dragon left and if not, where we could find others for him to be with. Keith told me of records that were split between humans and dragons as they went their separate ways, records as old as life itself, and the information they held within them. I enlisted the help of my friend to access those records, and was able to find out about other clans. From there, the plan was to take them to Keith and convince him to leave, to go and find another clan to join, but it didn't happen exactly like that.”

“Your scar,” Matt said, nodding to the line of marred scales on Keith’s side. “Is that from some sort of complication in the plan?”

“Yes,” Keith said, nodding. “The human king knew about Lance’s involvement somehow, and knew exactly where he was. He brought me to where the records were being kept and Lance was getting information from them, injured me and tied me down, and then waited for Lance to come back out so that he could threaten him. He said that Lance knew too much about the past and it was a threat to him, and he wanted him to choose between killing me and killing himself.”

“How are you both alive, then?” Pidge asked, awed. “Did the king let you go? Or did you have to fight him? Did you  _ kill _ him?”

“No, no, no. Nothing like that,” Lance said, shaking his head. “I simply offered him a third option. I told him that he could banish me instead, and we both would leave Altea and never come back.” 

“And now here you are,” Colleen said, smiling a little.

“And now here we are,” Keith confirmed, nodding.

“If every dragon has left Altea,” Shiro said, speaking up for the first time in quite a while, “then how will the humans there survive? They will fall into drought.”

“I can still sing for them,” Keith said immediately, his voice sounding surprisingly urget. “They feel… much farther away than I am used to, but I can still feel them. I’ve been singing for them our entire journey here.”

“It sounds as if they don’t deserve to be sung for,” Colleen said, clicking her tongue. ”Perhaps you should let them dry out.”

“The humans that live there now are not the same humans that killed my clan,” Keith said, shaking his head. “They don’t deserve to die because of the actions of their ancestors. I don’t hold them accountable. Besides, my mate’s family still lives there. I’ve already taken their son from them; I won’t take their lives, too.”

“I suppose that is the noble thing to do, isn’t it?” Colleen said with a sigh, sounding a bit disappointed.

“It is,” Shiro agreed, nodding and turning to face Keith. “It sounds as though you and your mate have gone through a great deal in order to be here.”

“We have,” Keith agreed, nodding back. “And we understand if you are not willing to take us into your clan. We will move on and find another if we must.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Shiro said, giving them both a smile as he climbed to his feet. Lance had been right before, his horns tall enough to scrape gently against the cave ceiling before he bowed his head, pressing it against Keith’s chest and leaving it for a few moments before raising it again. Keith, eyes wide with what Lance could tell a mix of awe and surprise and wonder, repeated the gesture a second later, movements slow and a little unsure. Shiro sat back in front of them once they were done, that warm smile still on his face. “Keith, Lance, Kosmo. Welcome to the clan.”

* * *

Several hours later found them curled up in a hastily constructed nest made from spare materials given to them by other Galrans, Kosmo already fast asleep where he lay by their feet. Keith had changed back to human form as soon as the attention was finally off of them, practically throwing himself into Lance’s arms the second he had the chance. They hadn’t really separated since then, their limbs intertwined as they laid beneath the stars. 

Lance was on his back with Keith sprawled across him, his cheek squished adorably where it was pressed against Lance’s chest. Keith’s fingers were tracing small, absentminded patterns across Lance’s skin through his shirt as Lance brushed his fingers through his hair, unworking the knots. 

They hadn’t said much since laying down together, but they didn’t need to. They’d both had an exciting and emotional day, and it was nice to have some time to just relax together, safe and comfortable with their new clan. It was kind of weird to think about, Lance being part of a  _ clan, _ and he had to keep reminding him it was just like having a big family. He was no stranger to that, and it made the whole thing a lot easier for him to digest. 

It also made him miss his own family, but he supposed that was just part of the deal. At least for right now he couldn’t be here and have his family at the same time, and Keith had been without his family for much longer than Lance had. It was Keith’s turn to get a little family time in, and then maybe one day Lance could contact his own and convince them to move to the human village closest to them so he could visit. 

Keith suddenly shifting on Lance’s chest drew him out of his thoughts, his eyes meeting Keith’s as he looked down at him. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Lance said, nodding. “What’s up?”

Keith hesitated for another second, his sharp teeth tugging at his bottom lip before letting it go so he could speak. “Would you… would you want to?”

“Would I want to what?” Lance asked, brow furrowing in confusion. 

“Become a dragon,” Keith clarified, looking away from him. “I talked to Colleen and Shiro about it earlier, and apparently it’s something they’d be able and willing to do for us. If you’re interested, that is. I get it if you’re not. You’ve already given up a lot for me.”

“Keith, baby,” Lance said softly, smiling as he cupped Keith’s cheek and brought his face up again, making him meet his eyes. “Is that even a question? You think I would have done any of this if I didn’t want to spend as much time with you as I could?”

“Well, no,” Keith said, shaking his head. “Just… that doesn’t mean you want to do something like this. This is  _ big,  _ you know?”

“Nothing in the world would make me happier than being able to be with you for the rest of time,” Lance reassured him, pulling his face up and pressing a soft kiss against his lips. “Nothing. I’d be happy to become a dragon for you.”

Lance felt Keith smile against his lips before he was kissing him again, a small, happy laugh bubbling out of his throat. “Okay. Okay. I’ll tell Shiro as soon as I see him again.” 

“What color do you think I’m gonna be?” Lance asked, his fingers finding Keith’s hair again and diving into the soft strands.

“Hmm,” Keith hummed, laying his head on Lance’s chest again, snuggling into him. “I don’t know. Blue, maybe, like your eyes.”

“That’d be pretty,” Lance smiled. “And being able to fly will be pretty cool. Maybe we can go see the ocean.”

“We can do that,” Keith said, nodding a little. “We can do anything we want. We’ll have nothing but time.”

Lance smiled at that, holding Keith close to him as he looked up at the stars far above him, completely unreachable but still so appealing. He’d like to go up there someday, too, see all the things the stars had to show him, but he knew even dragons couldn’t fly that high. But it wasn’t so bad down here, either. There was plenty for him to see and enjoy, even with a seemingly endless lifetime to fill. He’d be just fine where he was, surrounded by people who loved him and decided to trust him, even when he was nothing more to them than a stranger. He couldn’t say that this was quite how he thought his life would end up, but at the end of the day, he didn’t have any complaints. He was happy, and that was all that really mattered to him. 

“Yeah. I like the sound of that.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and then they lived happily ever after as dragon boyfriends.
> 
> thank you all so much for reading! its so crazy that this is finally done. i hope you enjoyed, and you have a good holiday season. be like the boys and spend some time with your family <3

**Author's Note:**

> come follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/professionlmess)!!! comments and kudos much appreciated!!!


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